COEUR d'ALENE - Even if he doesn't raise a penny, David Vann will have considered it a success.

The idea to benefit a cause came on a whim - a spur of the moment decision for the lifelong hiker who doesn't have a stitch of fundraising experience.

Listen to him say it:

"As far as the fundraising, I don't have a clue," Vann put it this week.

But hiking, well, that's another story.

Originally from the Seattle area, Vann lived with the Cascade mountain range and Mount Rainier as his backyard. Oregon and California, with their peaks and summits, were the neighboring states he explored. Names like Sloan, Baker, Hood.

He's hiked, he said, "just about everything on the west coast."

So perhaps Mount Whitney had to be the next step. The goal to climb the tallest mountain in the continental United States - the 14,500 monster in California's Sierra Nevadas - makes perfect sense. Adding a plan to raise money for pancreatic cancer research will make the adventure even more rewarding.

It's the disease that took his first wife, Helen, in 1997. It's the disease with which 45,000 people this year will be diagnosed. Thirty-eight thousand of them will die. It gives those affected a 6 percent chance of surviving five years.

"It was an amazing journey," Vann said of standing beside his wife during her seven-month fight with the disease, a time that strengthened their relationship as he focused on her and she relied on him. "The faith we shared in God is what got us through."

Vann, a retired Seattle firefighter, has since remarried to M.J., and has lived in Coeur d'Alene for 13 years. But he's lived with the disease every day since. And after reading about a Press article about raising awareness for the disease, he felt compelled to do more.

He was planning to hike anyway, but then he looked up the Inland Northwest affiliate for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to see if he could parlay the two.

"He told us he wanted to climb a mountain and raise money for the cause," said Alex Monteiro, event coordinator on Vann pitching his suggestion to the group out of the blue. "I think it's a cool idea."

Exactly how the fundraising drive goes still needs to be worked out.

Pledging amounts for feet climbed is a possible idea. Vann, along with his friends John Ukich and Mike Haenkey, will gain 6,200 feet over 11 miles from the trailhead to the top of the mountain June 4-5. Third party fundraising, which is when someone like Vann takes on a cause outside an agency's main fund drives, aren't common, Monteiro said.

They're appreciated, but rare.

Added to that, the disease has never had a spokesperson, or a famous face championing its cause for long spells because it's fatal, quickly.

"Anything to fight this disease that has 6 percent, five-year survival rate is definitely appreciated," Monteiro said. "We need as much support as we can get."

After he sprung the idea on his hiking pals there wasn't anything they could do. They've been training for months now, hiking Canfield Mountain, snowshoeing, training at gyms. With an added cause, there's really no turning back now.

"It puts a little more pressure on us," Ukich said, adding they've trained hard but should the going get tough: "We'd feel compelled to finish it."

"I think if we can do something to help a good cause like that, we should do it," he said.

Now that word is getting out, the fundraising drive is officially under way. Even if Vann doesn't have experience raising cash for a cause, the only thing left to do is hike - something he's good at.

"I'm set to climb the mountain no matter what," said Vann, 69. "It's kind of a last adventure for me."

For more information or to donate, contact Monteiro, (650) 279-1909 or David Vann, 765-7659, 5876 Silver Pines Court, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815.