As is often the case in the Brecon Beacons, the forecast was trumped by the unpredictability of the weather in the hills.
I began at the information board in the Llyn y Fan Fach car park and ascended to Llyn y Fan Fach in clear conditions. However, as soon as I began my ascent of Picws Du, the weather turned sour. I faced complete whiteout as heavy snowfall mixed with dense fog, making navigation tricky in places. The ascent of Fan Brycheiniog, in particular, was tough; with all signs of the trail buried under heavy snow, I resorted to following a compass bearing to reach the Fan Foel cairn and then hugged the ridgeline to ensure I reached the trig point.
The descent to Llyn y Fan Fawr was equally slow-going. Picking my way down the icy steps, I ended up sliding down portions of the slope on my bum. One upside of the wintry conditions was that the bog surrounding Llyn y Fan Fawr had frozen over, allowing me to regain some time as I skirted the lake without the usual puddle-hopping.
Returning to Llyn y Fan Fach, the trail was easier to spot (thanks to the footprints of the intrepid hikers ahead of me) and I managed to regain some more time with only a few stumbles in the deeper snow drifts. A couple of falls resulted in some bruising, but nothing more serious.
The descent from Llyn y Fan Fach back to the car park was not nearly as fast as I'd hoped. I'd intended to claw back some precious seconds here, but while I was on the mountains the track had iced over. Some (unintentional) downhill skating got my back to the car park just outside of my 1 hour 45 min goal time.
All in all, not the smooth ride I had hoped for, but a valuable learning experience nonetheless. I'll return for another attempt in more favourable conditions!