Quelccaya ice cap continues to retreat

My research of the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, the world's largest tropical glacier, took a strange twist in the past few years. While every image I had collected of the ice mass showed considerable retreat since the late 1970s, from 1999 to 2001 there was no discernible retreat when viewed from satellite imagery. Anxious to see what the future would hold, I have feverishly been searching for more recent imagery which contain no clouds and no seasonal snow cover. Getting these data turned out to be much more difficult than I expected, as the fickle climate of the Cordillera requires extreme patience.

...the fickle climate of the Cordillera requires extreme patience. My waiting has finally paid off. I have just procured more recent images of the ice cap from 2004 and 2006. While I am waiting to analyze the images and quantify the retreat since 2001, a quick glance at the 2006 image reveals that the melt that Peruvian glaciers were experiencing until 1999 is back. Stay tuned for more details!