AVE, or FIRN  , the name given to the partly consolidated masses of snow and ice which form in the hollows on the sides of mountains below the belt of freshly fallen snow and just above the compact glacier-ice . The neve, which generally consists of broad sheets of great beauty, is formed from the freshly fallen snow during a series of alternate thaws and frosts . These processes are accompanied by a gradual descent down the mountain side, during which the neve suffers consolidation, until it becomes compact glacier-ice . The neve is thus the feeding ground of the glacier (q.v.) .