In reply to Padraig: Cheers, thanks for all the support, finished in 25.5 hrs..
I put this on the FRA forum.. I'll write a proper report soon enough.. today will be spent eating..
Great day. Ended up 25.5
Was on for 24 until about 17 hrs when a final blizzard on the boundary ridge section in the dark just killed my pace. I'd bee out for 17+ hrs and when I had to nav I just couldn't, I literally couldn't read a map.. sorted it out but lost time. In the dark with all the snow you just couldn't make out any forms. The last leg took almost 9 hrs which slows how slow I was on that.
Started off really well, stunning night for Hebog. Strangely Hebog had snow down to 550m so the descent was super fast, but then verglass on nantlle ridge made the scramble pretty scary. Snowdon went well enough, total white out, but hard neve with footprints meant I could just follow and got up quick. The first two legs were done well under 8 hrs. Maybe I pushed too much as I knew those legs could be quick and the Glyders and Carneddau would be issues.
Then the glyders and that was slow from Glyder Fach onwards.
The first mistake was running down the GF descent gully with no crampons, it was soft snow at the top then much harder lower down.. that was fun..
Tryfan was fine, just slow wearing crampons.
Carneddau killed me, climbed well to PYOW but the snow on the ridges was deep with a weak crust then you stepped through, I lost time to both the ridge legs but think i worked too hard just to not lose too much.
Then climbed siabod ok but it was dark for this section and the moon didnt rise till late last night. Almost jacked it in at the quarries, but it was a stunning night suddenly, so finished off. As id had enough of steep frozen scrambles and no chance of 24 i oped for a longer circular route to cnicht and took the descent very slow as by then i had almost no torch light. I took 2 myo xps and 9 batteries but each set only lasted 5-6 hrs so just scraped by.. at one point i started to worry lack of torch light could finish the round.
The boundary ridge was also just below freezing level, so there were a few scary moments as you fell through some of those deep bogs, used poles for that section amd they were a great help.
Glad i finished, awesome experience. I'd been busy friday so although I'd laid in till 10 it meant I'd already been away for 14 hrs before I set off so it was a good 36 hrs no sleep.. the drive back wasn't fun. deffo proper winter conditions, doubt i'll do it again to try to get the 24, I just wanted to do a proper winter round. I still think 24 could have been possible with a bit of luck.
This was my 3rd attempt. one each winter for 3 years, I wasnt going to do it this year as i've done so little fell running but felt good at the OMM so thought I may as well have a crack and I was lucky to get such good conditions, proper winter, yet fairly decent weather. I had almost no rain, just cloud, blizzards and strong winds.