©2009John Sanchez
This is the biggest chain of snow peaks in Colombia, with breathtaking views and more than 15 snow peaks, dozens of high altitude lagoons, and one of the most pristine vegetation for this paramo of 13.000 to 16.000 feets.
Most of this white beauty is located in an area of more than 20 miles and over 14.000feet.
Be aware:
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy trends north-south on the Cordillera Oriental. Mountain glaciers extend along an 18-km-long segment, and glaciers and snowfields measured on a 1973 Landsat image covered an area of 28 km2 (table 3). However, Jordan and others (1989), using 1959 and 1978 aerial photographs, gave a preliminary estimate of 39.12 km2 (table 2). In contrast, Thouret and others (1996) gave a range from 28 to 30 km2 for the glacierized area. Glaciers flow only to the west because of the extremely steep eastern slopes of the range. The highest peak in the range rises 5,493 m above mean sea level. The lowest elevation for a glacier terminus was reported by Ancízar (1853) to be 4,150 m. One hundred years later, Kraus and Van der Hammen (1959, 1960) reported the termini elevations of four glaciers to be between 4,325 and 4,425 m, an estimated average annual retreat of about 1.6 m a-1. The snowline elevation was reported to be at 4,676 m by Ancízar (1853), at 4,780 by Notestein and King (1932), and at 4,900 m by the Cambridge Expedition (Stoddart, 1959). Older long-time residents of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy have observed a significant retreat of the snowline and glacier termini during the last 50 years.
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