We are preparing to ski the Lewis Glacier, one of the last permanent snowfields in Africa.

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The biosphere reserve comprises permanent snowfields and glaciers, and numerous streams and small rivers.

UNESCO: Biosphere Reserve Information

But global warming is changing Huascaran National Park, and the spectacular snowfields of the Cordillera Blanca are in retreat.

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That pool is best appreciated on a moonlit winter night, the craggy peak of Rundle Mountain rising above sparkling snowfields.

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In the 1760s, the Norwegian army held skill competitions involving skiing down slopes, around trees, across level snowfields and while shooting.

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The scenery is spectacular, full of jagged 10, 000-foot peaks, pristine glacial lakes and lily-white snowfields, punctuated by the odd elk or moose.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Like the snowfields of Kilimanjaro and the ice in the Diamond Couloir, the Lewis Glacier is shrinking at an alarming rate because of global warming.

CNN: The snows of Erukenya

While earthquakes have often been blamed for rock failures and landslides on mountain slopes, scientists also point at global temperature rises for rapid thawing of snowfields and glacial melt that can disturb the flow of snow-fed rivers.

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