In reply to Tom the tall:
I thought the crap conditions was the whole point of a winter round.
Whenever anyone does a winter round (e.g. BG) and the weather's benign, then all that happens is that people carp on about it being no harder than a summer round.
Agree with you about the amazing effort. I don't think most of us mere mortals have any real idea of what it takes to do one of these multi-day ultra challenges; it's just so far outside our experience. We just have to stand back and look on in awe.