Well I was really thinking to myself... if we have elemental type zanpaktou's then the strongest type element would naturally win in a fight right?
Take for example hitsugaya toushirou... he's got Hyourinmaru which is the strongest ice and snow type zanpaktou. That's not a measure on how strong it is really because the only comparison we have is sode no shirayuki... but that's another trivia altogether
but coming back to the main confusion at hand... if hitsugaya were to go against Yamamoto Genryuusai who has a flame type zanpaktou and who's zanpaktou is also the strongest flame type zanpaktou... i think there would be no doubt that genryuusai would win since flame always melts ice.
Put apart the fact that Genryuusai has reiatsu that's atleast a factor of 20 greater than Toushirou. Just comparing zanpaktou's, ice is at a direct disadvantage against flame. Just my thoughts though ^_^