The climb seemed more difficult than they'd imagined – after all, climbing steps in a 40-story downtown office tower can't exactly re-create conditions on a cold, windswept mountain 21/2 miles high.

But it was the satisfaction this group of Dallas climbers found at the top at 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, and the overwhelming response to the cause behind the climb, that more than balanced the struggle in every trudging step they made to the summit.

"I'm not going to lie to you – it's cold up there," said Chris Fulmer, one of the climbers. "You put those big parkas on up there, but it's still cold and windy. And the first day of the climb was in driving rain."

Mason Griffin, another in the group, said the climb this month exceeded all expectations.

"We felt prepared from a conditioning perspective, but it was much more difficult than we'd expected," he said.

But their cause – raising money in honor of a close friend's cancer-stricken young son – kept them going. And the response has been incredible, Mr. Griffin said.

"We've been blown away by the support," he said. "We're north of $12,000 now."

The contributions are part of an effort to raise $150,000 over three years to hire an additional child life specialist for the oncology floor at Children's Medical Center in Dallas.

That's where 5-year-old Gage Holmes has been treated for acute lymphocytic leukemia for the last year.

Gage's dad, Blake, is on staff at Watermark Community Church in North Dallas, where Mr. Griffin and Mr. Fulmer are members. And as they've watched the Holmes family, and Gage himself, deal with the disease and its treatment, they decided to do what they could to help.

Their planned climb of 14,410-foot Mount Rainier seemed an appropriate cause.

When they reached the summit, the climbers unfurled a banner: "Team Holmes, Children's Medical Center," and smiled through below-freezing temperatures and wailing wind.

Children's has two child life specialists in the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders who serve as liaisons between the young patients and their families and the medical staff. But the Holmes family saw how much these specialists do and decided the busy floor needed a third.

It's a big goal. But then, so was climbing a mountain.

Send checks to the Children's Medical Center Foundation, 2777 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 1025, Dallas, Texas 75207. Designate the contribution for "Team Holmes."