Difficult to trigger wind slab avalanche on Ellis Peak

Ascending from Blackwood Canyon there was plenty of evidence of wind transport in near treeline and open below treeline areas. Cracking while breaking trail was very limited but wind slabs were present and stiff. The small wind slab avalanche that we were able to intentionally trigger on a NE aspect test slope near treeline held a very small cornice.  It took both my partner and me kicking at opposite ends of the cornice to get it to fail. Once it did, the hard wind slab below propagated and avalanched. The slab was 1F+ hard wind drifted snow and it failed on F hard recent storm snow below it.

Snowpit data was collected near the site of the wind slab avalanche but in an area that was sufficiently sheltered. We found remains of the Dec 4 surface hoar layer, but it was not reactive. Descending back to Blackwood Canyon we were able to easily avoid other wind slabs and complete our tour in avalanche terrain with good snow quality.