despite actually being there and seeing the glaciers first hand as well as viewing the photographs that were taken of them....

well the first two articles you mention show an increase in the glaciers from 1980 to 1988 but unfortunetly that's all they show. They've been increasing since then.

Here's a short article about the increase: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=\ForeignBureaus\archive\200502\FOR20050216a.html