Small avalanche on Tamarack

I was one of a party of two on dawn patrol in the tamarack area this morning. I was skiing, and my partner was split boarding. Skinning up, we noticed a firm crust beneath approximately 3 inches of new snow on s and w aspects. I slipped a bit on the crust when putting in a sidehill skin track. Topped out on the ridge and skied low angle north-facing terrain. We did not feel a crust on the low angle north aspect we skied, and decided to ski a steeper slope.

I dropped into a steep chute down into galena creek drainage. On my fourth turn saw cracks shoot out in front of me and cut hard out of the slide, stopping above a tree. I stopped and observed the crown once debris had flowed past, and then I skied the debris down. My partner followed on the debris once I cleared the area. 

The crown was approximately 6 inches deep and 30 feet wide. The slide ran approximately 200 vertical feet. No riders were entrained. The new snow from last night slid on a firm crust.