That's right, at that level there was a dense crust, there was no deep snow and movement could go without skis. It's definitely faster.
Hmm, walking is faster than skiing? Normally, this is not the case but if it was faster for the Dyatlov group, please tell us why.
This means that you cannot go to Otorten by a horizontal route from the forest border and a few hundred meters inland. They tried. But heavy load, deep snow, icy gorge ridge. They had to come back.
In the diaries, it's not really explained why they turned back. Maybe the inference that can be made is that they wanted to set up a labaz and the ridge was not suitable, so they went back to the forest around Auspiya. (But why not forward to Lozva?). There are photos they made on the ridge before turning back. They were on skis. When skiing, it doesn't matter how deep the snow is, you're on top of it. Ice however, is a problem. You can't slide (unless the ice is smooth, but that happens only on lakes. And then you need skates not skis). So what was the problem that didn't allow them to cross?
They had to come back. They prepared the warehouse. With a lighter load, they headed for the slope with no snow depth.
No snow depth is a problem. You can't ski on frozen ground, much less on rocks. But again, we have photos of them skiing up the slope. So, I don't understand your point.
Did they want to walk instead of ski? If so, then choosing the higher ground with less deep / harder snow makes sense. But we know they skied because of the photos. Or, are you saying that their load was so heavy that they couldn't ski in deep snow, because they sank into it? But from the diaries it looks like they went back to the area with the deepest snow to set up the labaz. I'm not disagreeing with you just asking for more information