Third Denali summit try for South Bay benefit mountaineer Mark Parella
by Garth Meyer It was carved into a desktop in a junior high classroom in Holden, Mass. It said, “Live to dream, but it is a dream to live.” Mark Parella was a seventh-grader assigned to sit in the old home economics desk in 1993. He is now 42 years old and heads to Anchorage, Alaska, June 1 with a group of Nepali mountaineers to climb Denali, marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Nepal – while raising funds for Cancer Support Community South Bay. “We just want to try to get as much as we can,” said Parella, a five-year Navy veteran and Hermosa Beach resident since 2008. “It would be great if we could get over $10,000, for sure.” It is his fifth Climb Against Cancer, which has raised $13,162 so far. Parella works as an agent for the Department of Homeland Security, based in El Segundo. His first big mountain was Mt. Whitney in 2012. Previous peaks in his benefit program were Denali twice (did not summit), Mt. Everest in 2019 and (Mt.) Ama Dablam in Nepal last year. This year is a third try at Denali. The first two were scratched by weather, for a mountain above the Arctic Circle known for its storms coming off the Bering Strait. “We…
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