Winter Scramble - Sky Mountain & Tye Peak

Left Stevens lot D to go up the skyline lake trail around 8:15. The lot was filling up by that point and plenty of skiers were out at Steven We were some of the first ones up the trail however, and that morning were certainly the first snowshoers. Skyline lake was frozen through significantly. We moved around the North side of it to exit the pass on the Northwest side. We then descended the next valley, hugging below the tree line of it's southern edge and shot for the pass just south of Tye. Moving in and out of that valley was the deepest snow -- probably 1-2 feet of powder variably. From the pass to Tye the ridge was fairly simple and we followed ski tracks. Return trip followed approximately the same path. We opted out of an attempt  for Sky Mountain in order to return earlier and try to be ski traffic on US-2. Total trip time ~ 6:16, approximate distance covered 5.6 miles. With the snow conditions we were able to do the whole trip with snowshoes and poles and did not need ice axes, crampons, etc. at any point.