Intermediate Snowshoe - Skyline Ridge & Tye Peak

High avalanche danger and massive amounts of unconsolidated new snow kept us off the ridge but the hike up to the lake was lovely and thankfully someone had already come through and started creating a platform so we didn't have to break trail up to the lake. Circumnavigated the lake, breaking trail in 30+ inches of soft unconsolidated snow around the lake. We all took turns breaking trail as it was up to the waist of most of us! No signs of avalanches. We dug a quick pit to see if there was a weak layer but had to dig way down to find something other than unconsolidated new snow. Finally found the inversion melt-freeze crust about 120 cm down. Tried isolating a column but there was no dramatic failure at any stage, just sideways sluffing in the new snow and it was pretty solid at the boundary with the melt-freeze crust.  Sunnier, more open skies to the east, cloudy and socked in to the west, so only partial sun on the trip.