Skier's commandments -- rules to live by in and out of ski season

Well, ski season is almost over (for ski-area skiing, anyway). But, the lessons learned from skiing are year-round.

So, with that in mind, below is the "Skier's Ten Commandments," as posted in the Winter Club Room at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yellowstone National Park. The Commandments were proffered by Swiss ski instructor Jules Fritsch in 1928.


Fritsch's commandments:

1. Thou shall have no other sports before ski.
   


2. Thou shalt not take with thee any showshoes, neither any toboggans,
   nor any other means of transportation from the heavens above to the
   earth beneath.
   


3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for what of it?
   


4. Remember the winter-time and keep in wholly, in the summer shalt
   thou labor and do all thy work, but the winter is the season of the
   ski, thy Lord and master. In its evenings thou shalt not fritter away
   the time with backgammon, nor with red-dog, nor michigan, nor
   tiddleywinks, nor jig-saw puzzles, but in the sweat of thy brow shalt
   thou polish and wax thy skis. For in ten hours shalt thou labor and
   climb up the hill, and in ten minutes shalt thou be down again. (Oh
   yeah.)
   
   
5. Carry thy own skis and thy knapsack, that thy friends shall not
   avoid thee, and that thy days may be long on the ski trips that thou
   makest.
   
   
6. Thou shalt not dither.
   


7. Thou shalt not commit sitzmarks.
   
   
8. Thou shalt not swipe thy neighbor's ski-wax.
   


9. Thou shalt not bear false witness of thy downhill runs, nor thy jump turns, nor thy telemarks.
   


10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s sealskins, nor thy neighbor’s
    agility, nor his Stem-Christiania, nor his Closed-Christiania, nor his
    Open-Christiania., nor any Christiania which is thy neighbor’s.

"Sitzmarks are made by fools like me, But only Fritsch can miss a tree."


Amen, Jules.


(Skier's Ten Commandments via Empty Beer, on Teton Gravity Research Forum.)

******

This post also appears on InsideOutsideMag.com. Check it out!