This manuscript provides a morphological and mineralogical characterisation of dust particles found in ice cores collected in the tropical Peruvian Andes and discusses their potential sources. Overall, I found the manuscript well written, and the discussion of potential dust sources is thorough. I only have a few minor comments.

1. I was wondering whether it would be possible to identify or use accessory minerals that can be specifically linked to the granodiorite, tonalite, and Chicama Formation. These could provide additional constraints for source attribution.

2. Carbonates were not observed in the analysed particles. Could the absence of carbonates help to exclude or support specific potential dust sources?

3. Do the particles show any coatings or internal mixing that could support atmospheric processing during long-range transport? Since the manuscript discusses the possibility of a North African contribution, I was wondering whether the particles show any evidence of atmospheric ageing that could provide additional support for their long-range transport.

4. In the Introduction, the authors mention the role of iron oxides as strong light absorbers, including after deposition on glaciers. However, the iron oxide content is not really highlighted or discussed in the rest of the manuscript. If iron oxides were identified, I think it would be interesting to briefly discuss their abundance and potential implications.

The manuscript on the evaluation and characterization of particles deposited on the Huascarán Glacier in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, is well written and detailed. Furthermore, it provides information on the morphology and chemical composition of particulate matter from 1960-2015.

Nevertheless, detailed comments and questions are listed below:

- In the first paragraph, it would be beneficial to further improve and expand the list of different effects of particulate matter in the atmosphere as an example: ocean productivity, human health, reduce solar radiation....

- Line 57: I would highly recommend to change the use of To our knowledge, to In this study,.

- On the mineral identification: Although the methodology and the references on which the mineral classification is based are cited, the manuscript does not specify the final classification criteria or the used elemental ratios to assign particles to the different mineral groups. Those ratios may be subtle to different interpretations, providing them would improve the transparency of the methodology and facilitate the reader's understanding of the final mineral classification. So, I highly recommend to attach a table in the supplementary material describing and fixing those elemental ratios for each mineral class. 

- To facilitate comparison with previous work done in the topic, it would also be beneficial to complement the results and discussion sections with comparisons to other studies, highlighting similarities and differences in particle size distributions, particle shapes, and mineralogical composition. Such comparisons would strengthen the interpretation of the data and help better constrain the relative contributions of long-range transported North African dust versus locally sourced dust.

- The manuscript shows a good correlation between the abundance of kaolinite detected in the ice core, and regional deforestation rates. It would also be interesting to investigate whether the relative abundance of specific mineral groups (e.g., montmorillonite, mica, kaolinite, or oligoclase) correlates with the frequency of North African dust events affecting the region during the same period. Such an analysis could provide additional evidence supporting the contribution of long-range transported Saharan dust to the mineral assemblages identified in the ice core.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the authors on this valuable work and the results presented. This study provides important new insights into the characterization of mineral dust transported to the tropical Andes and offers valuable information that will support future studies on dust sources, transport pathways, and environmental change.