Poor judgement in Sonar bowl

Picked a familiar entrance point into Sonar bowl. The entrance is NE facing and the winds had been mainly S over the last 24 hours. I performed 3 ski cuts at the top and although a crust was evident, there were no signs of slipping. After 3-4 more turns, a cracked appeared above me and followed me as a tried to traverse left. Luckily the slab was no thicker than 6” and it was easy to stay on top of. As we continued down the bowl towards the trees, there is a section of 35-40 degree slope, N/ NE facing that was also very reactive. The crust persisted until we reached the trees at approx 1800m elevation.