Birken

Mix of crust and saturated wet snow on the ascent up until ~1,500m when it started being noticeably drier and powdery but still somewhat wet. Frost line clearly rose throughout the day as the sticky wet snow was found at ~1,800m on the descent.

Saw a lot of drifting snow periodically overtop ridge crests. Snow seemed facet-y as it did not settle but mostly slid on the crust layers before settling on shallower (~25-30°) aspects. No significant wind slab was found anywhere even at the top of a steep N couloir.

Saw the debris of many large old wet slab or loose wet avalanches. Not sure how old but was lightly covered in new snow. There was a periodic stream of size 1 loose dry avalanches/sluffs from wind gusts driving snow over ridge crests into the couloir.