Taking the heavy snow into account, we can be very happy with what we have achieved. One mountain pass, which opened up the more eastern highlands was just! passable and we had our access to another emptiness. As soon as there was a risk of snowfall I avoided it, I did not want to be marooned on the other side. On the day of the big snowstrom I decided against using this mountain pass, which was probably the best decision of the trip.....
On that day we hardly made it back using the ring road, strong winds, blowing snow, the road was really really slippery! Shortly after we made it back to the hotel in walking pace (next pic, but it kept on snowing for the next 8 hours!), the ring road was blocked and subsequently closed. All vehicles on the road had to be evacuated in a convoy supervised by the emergency organisations. They did a good job.
By the way spikes are in September not yet allowed on rental cars, with spikes it would have been a bit tricky but much easier!
