Pico Humboldt is Venezuela's second highest peak, at 4,940 metres above sea level. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Merida

Sierra Nevada de Mérida

The Sierra Nevada de Mérida is the highest mountain range in the largest massif in Venezuela, the Cordillera de Mérida, which in turn is part of the northern extent of the Cordillera de los Andes...

, in the Venezuelan Andes of (Mérida State). The peak with its sister peak Pico Bonpland

Pico Bonpland

Pico Bonpland is Venezuela's third highest peak, at 4,883 metres above sea level. It is located in the Sierra Nevada de Merida, in the Venezuelan Andes of . The peak with its sister peak Pico Humboldt, and the surrounding páramos are protected by the Sierra Nevada National Park. It shares with the...

, and the surrounding páramo

Páramo

The term páramo can refer to a variety of ecosystems. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as “all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline”. A more narrow term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement - specifically located in “the northern Andes...

s are protected by the Sierra Nevada National Park.

It is named after the famous German explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

.

Glaciers

The summit is surrounded by the Eastern Coromoto glacier and the Sievers glacier, the two largest out of the five glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s remaining in the country (the other three smaller glaciers are on Pico Bolívar

Pico Bolívar

Pico Bolívar is the highest mountain in Venezuela, at 4,981 metres. Located in Mérida State, its top is permanently covered with névé snow and three small glaciers. It can be reached only by walking; the Mérida cable car, the highest cable car in the world, only reaches Pico Espejo. From there it...

). The glaciers on Humboldt Peak (as most tropical

Tropics

The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately  N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at  S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...

 glaciers) have been receding fast

Retreat of glaciers since 1850

The retreat of glaciers since 1850 affects the availability of fresh water for irrigation and domestic use, mountain recreation, animals and plants that depend on glacier-melt, and in the longer term, the level of the oceans...

since the 1970s and they are forecast to melt completely in a couple of decades.