It is still cold and dark when Lindsey Monroe leaves her Norcross townhome and heads to the Pinckneyville Park for her first session of boot camp.

She joins the group and begins her workout just after 5 a.m., doing 15 minutes of warm-ups, followed by sit-ups, push-up, squats.

Becky Stein/Special (ENLARGE)

Lindsey Monroe is getting in shape for the physical demands of hiking around the high-altitude base of Mount Everest. She also is raising money to build an orphanage in Nepal.

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"All right, listen up," the leader barks. "We're going to run a mile. I'll yell out your time as you come in."

It's a lot for an exercise novice, but Monroe is determined. She needs to get in shape by the fall if she's going to endure the high altitude and the 30-mile trek at the base of the tallest mountain on earth.

Mount Everest has always held the 29-year-old captive.

If she wasn't reading books about Everest, she was surfing Web sites seeking yet another fact, a tidbit she hadn't seen or heard before.

While online back in December, she stumbled upon a site for the Global Volunteer Network. A trip to Everest was one of several for which the network was recruiting, but it wasn't just for sightseeing. They also hoped to raise money to build an orphanage in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.

"I just thought this is an amazing opportunity," Monroe said. "I can live out my dream and help a bunch of kids who desperately need it at the same time."

The funny thing is, Monroe isn't what you might call an outdoors woman. She doesn't like getting dirty. She doesn't hike. She has never fancied herself cooking in a pot over a fire.

"My idea of camping is the Red Roof Inn," she said.

Everest, though, seemed to always beckon — not to climb, just to be in her presence.

The dream began, Monroe thinks, sometime around her senior year at Osborne High School, when she read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air," a personal account of a 1996 fatal climbing disaster on Everest.

She wondered what made the mountain so appealing, why would people want to go to such a dangerous place. The more she read about Everest, however, the more she wanted to go there.

"It's one of those places that calls to you," she said. "'Lindsey, come see me, come see me.' "

When she announced to her friends and family early this year she planned to make the trip, they thought she was crazy. But she was confident that she had enough time to train.

Thanks to an aunt and uncle, she has the frequent-flier miles to make the round trip to Kathmandu. A friend donated $40 for hot showers and she's about $1,400 from the $2,000 each volunteer must raise to help build the orphanage.

"That's the minimum," she said. "If I could raise more than that, I'd cry tears of joy for the rest of my life."

Tax deductible donations can be made through her Web site: www.thebigday.com/lindseymonroe.

Once in Kathmandu, Monroe and the rest of her group will meet some of the children who will live in the orphanage, then fly to Lukla, Nepal, where they will begin the 30-mile trek around the base. It is set to begin Sept. 29 and end on Oct. 18.

"The altitude is the biggest challenge," she said. "Here, we're at about 1,000 feet over sea level," she said. "The base camp is 9,000 feet over sea level."

Shedding 15 of her 123 pounds, she said, will make it easier to complete the walk and endure the high altitude. Monroe has the boot camp to help with the weight loss, but after that, her biggest challenge will be to tame the munchies.

"I'm a snacker," she said. "To lose the pounds, I have to change my eating habits."

The boot camp might help with that as well. Over the next four weeks, Monroe has to keep a journal of every thing she eats.

On the first day, instructors provided a recommended grocery list and suggested participants eat a minimum of 60 grams of protein and 25 grams of fiber each day.

At 6 a.m., lead instructor Sara Hall commanded their attention.

"All right boot campers, show me what you got," Hall said.

Monroe and her cohorts line up for the 1-mile run. They take off. Hall takes her place at the finish line.

The first runner brings it in at 8 minutes, 5 seconds; another at 8:20; and another at 8:44.

Four more runners cross the finish line before Monroe rounds the curve in the parking lot. Her time: 14:09. She's happy.

"I didn't walk the whole time," she said, "but now I think I'm going to die."