In memory of Kitti Muggs

Kristján Rafn Guðmundsson, Kitti Muggs, will be buried today, Friday, April 19. He was a skier from the great skiing family of Grænagard. His first time on skis at the age of four. After that there was no turning back. Competitions, training and various ski activities were a big part of his life ever since.

Kitti had a brilliant career as an accomplished cross-country skier. He won Icelandic championship titles and often competed abroad, including some twenty times in the world's most famous cross-country skiing event, the Vasa Walk in Sweden. He was considered hard to handle as a competitor, but he was also warm and cheerful and very willing to lend a helping hand to younger skiers. After the competition career was mostly over, Kitti went on countless trips as a tour guide and fertilizer master to cross-country skiing competitions in the country, and probably no one out there was better than him when it came to the often complicated skill of properly lubricating a cross-country ski. When the conditions were different, for example a mixture of old and new snow, snowfall at freezing point or the speed of the track changed, then our man was in his element and had the ability to extract scarce fertilizer from his large and often overflowing fertilizer bags. It was a unique blessing for young skiers to be able to benefit from Kitta's help in this regard.

Kitti has registered 42 Fossavatnsganga and only five people have walked it more often. However, no one has won the race more often, or 12 times, and that does not include victories in age groups, which were much more numerous. However, these 42 races are probably an underestimate. He took part in 1956, then only 12 years old, against all age rules. For this reason, his time was not recorded and therefore this race is not included in the official books of the walk, nor the other races he competed in while under age.

Kitti went skiing every day when he had the chance, and often twice a day. Being a driving instructor he could to some extent manage his working hours to accommodate his skiing enthusiasm. When people looked from the town up to the ski arena at night and saw the track lights on, they always said "well, Kitti has gone skiing". He skied as he got older and as for as long as he could, but eventually his eyesight began to bother him and he had to cut back on his skiing trips.

He reviewed his skiing career in detail in Skiðablaðið in 2008, which you can read on Ísafjörður Ski Association's website. In another interview, from 2001 he said, among other things: "I think everyone benefits from practicing cross-country skiing or sports in general. People must try to get properly tired. It is very important in life to know how to do something after you are tired, no matter if it is on the physical or mental level. That's one of the things you learn from skiing."

Yesterday, the 25 km Fossavatnsgangan free style was took place, as well as shorter races aimed at children. Tomorrow, April 20, the Fossavatnsagangan will take place, 89 years after it was first held. It is symbolic that Kitti's funeral takes place on the day in between.

Thanks for all the kilometers.

Boards of the Ísafjörður Ski Association and the Fossavatnsgangan.

In memory of Kitta Muggs, his family has established a foundation fund for ice fishing children, which will be managed by the board of SFÍ, id 590269-2479, bnr. 0556-14-628