Deep inside the frozen Eastern Alps, the Weißseespitze ice cap (pronounced VICE-zay-shpitt-suh) sits at almost 11,482 feet (3,500 meters) above sea level. Overlooking the mountainous border between Austria and Italy, Weißseespitze is an alpine glacier. Scientists say the ice cap is an extraordinary trove of data about pre-industrial human activity and environmental change. Spagnesi says that losing this much ice means the team has likely already lost several centuries of anthropogenic history. “When they disappear, we don’t only lose the ice, we lose the irreplaceable knowledge of how Earth’s climate has evolved and how human activity has influenced it.