President Obama visiting Kenya the other day represented another checkmark on his “Fuckit List”.  Not a “Bucket List” - as Obama explained.  “It rhymes with that.”  In other words, this is not stuff I’ve always wanted to do; these are things I’m GONNA DO or NOT DO, no matter what.  Like Obama, our time “in office” is all too short.   

JC’s “FUCK-IT” List:

(check back soon, I’m not nearly finished…)

1) I’m not gonna climb Mt. Everest.  If you know me well, you know this is not a joke, nor a surprising statement.  I climbed in the rugged mountains of Alaska (completed a serious mountaineering school there, for one), have ice climbed and rock climbed all over the American West, including Yosemite; and spent some time in the Andes, climbing the difficult “tres volcanos” of Cayambe, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador.  A couple years later I attempted Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalaya (almost 25,000 feet).  That is where I lost my enthusiasm for high altitude mountaineering, and for big expedition-style climbing.  I still need to write a story about that two week saga of suffering, but suffice to say I still love climbing, just not above 20,000 feet or so.