In the ski magazine 2024 (which you can read on Snjor.is together with all older ski magazines) is an article with various information about the Fossavatnsgangan results database.

The article is reprinted here for fun. It is machine translated from Icelandic but the most glaring errors have been corrected by hand.

From the Fossavatnsgangan database

Fossavatnsgangan was first run in 1935 and is celebrating its 90th anniversary next year. The route has always been in one way or another from Fossavatn above Engidal and over to Seljalandsdal, although the passage of time and various factors have had an effect on it that will not be discussed here.

For quite some time now, I have been working on compiling results from previous years' tunnels into one comprehensive database. Both results have been unpublished, or published in inaccessible excel documents that are difficult to understand properly. With a complete database, you can easily see all the results of each person, and compile various statistical information about the number and more. In order for this to happen, it is necessary to coordinate presentation, ensure that time measurements are machine-readable, that participants' names are recorded the same throughout time (which is especially hard work for participants with middle names), that common names are distinguished and much more.

Although I put the foundation together and it was hard work, it builds on the work of many others. The first is to mention the volunteers who have taken care of timing and registration of information every year. Guðmundur Sveinsson was devoted to it in the first few years. Guðmundur Ágústsson made great strides in these matters in the eighties and nineties. His son Hlynur helped, Guðmundur Rafn Kristjánsson (Muggur) also, Einar Ágúst Yngvason and Heimir Hansson. Elías Oddsson technicalized the time trial and was the prime mover there for years until Birgir Þór Halldórsson took over and he has been doing it for the last few years. Finishing and coordinating, typing and programming has been in my hands.

Sources can sometimes be found on special papers that have been found, sometimes results have been published in newspapers and on various other platforms.

Along with recording the results, I have compiled information about walks where it is available, both about periods, dates, location and length of routes and so on. The information is quite fragmentary though.

Despite this, results have been lost for two years and there seems little chance that this will be improved. However, Kitti Muggs is known to have conquered those tunnels—this was in his golden age—and has been awarded a total time of 100 minutes for those tunnels.

The date of the Fossavatnsgangan

The first thing to look at is the time of year. Before, there was little rule on the dates and it was decided in early March all the way back to the end of May. A rule arrived at dates around 1980 and was then based on the end of the month April-May. It has since been waived for various reasons and the date is now determined based on the following rule: Fossavatnsgangan is held on the last Saturday of winter except when it falls on the Easter weekend, in which case the procession is the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

Number of recorded hours

Next is to look at the number of participants. The figure shows how the number first takes off around the 1970s, rises slowly from the turn of the century, but then explodes in 2014 and beyond. In the epidemic year of 2020, the procession fell down and has not reached its former number since.

Most participation years

Although the Fossavatnsgangan is in itself a race to finish first, its aim has always been broader than that; to promote the practice of skiing, create goals for practitioners, bring people together and enjoy the outdoors on their own terms, to name a few. It is therefore appropriate to select first the individuals who have participated most often, regardless of the number of victories.

Here is a top 20 list of those who have participated most often and walked the most kilometers in the race. If a participant does two or more races in the same year, only the longest one is valid, and race are calculated with an regardless of distance.

Top 20: Women

Here is a top 20 list of women who have participated most often and walked the most kilometers in the walk. If a participant walks two or more walks in the same year, only the longest one is valid.

Most wins

When we count the number of victories, it can be done in various ways. Both have been competed in age groups and different distances, especially in recent times. If we limit the calculations to the longest distance of each year (excluding Næturfossavatnin), and skip sorting by age, Kristján Rafn Guðmundsson comes out on top with twelve victories. Next is Einar Ólafsson with seven victories, but he has considerably more gold after winning the 20 km walk in the first years that the 50 km walk was held.

Best average speed

As all participants in the Fossavatnsgang can tell long stories about, the conditions vary greatly from year to year. Weather and snow conditions affect both how the walk works, but also which track you can tread. This means that there can be a considerable difference between the actual distance and the installed distance. In the old days, distance estimation was also quite imprecise. The total time of the winner is therefore not a particularly good measure of how the race is done, and manages to take an average speed. I have estimated the distance back to 2012 based on the average Strava registrations of the participants, but before that time an actual distance of 50 km is assumed. By convention, average speed is recorded as the number of minutes per kilometer.

Men with the highest average speed

* Actual length not known and calculated with 50 km.

Women with the highest average speed

The first 50 km walk was in 2004. Comparison back in time, before the start of the 50 km walk, is difficult for several reasons. Actual distances are imprecise. The walks are shorter, so a higher average speed could be expected. But equipment and conditions were more difficult. Thus, the first machine-trodden track was in 1967, and progress in skiing, pushing technology and various other things has been great when you look at almost a century.

In 1965, when Kitti Muggs was in her prime, machine grooming had not yet begun. In that year, a report states that the walk began "at the bottom of Engidalur at the top, then the usual route over Galtarhryggur, the goal below Gullhóll, about 17 km". Kitti's time was 1:03:36, which gives 3:44 min/km.

The online database

The database is online and open to everyone. Naturally, the most fun is to look it up yourself. There is also an option to find your main opponents, which are the participants who have most often walked the same distance in the same year. It is still to be expected that there will be some pen slips or errors in the basis or the calculations, and any suggestions on this are welcome.