Welcome back, everyone. I’m your host, Kyle Broxterman, and today we’re continuing our conversation with Eric and Matthew Gilbertson. If you missed Part One, I highly recommend circling back to listen before continuing here, as we’ll be jumping right into the middle of our two-hour conversation.

Just in the past two weeks, Eric returned from a trip to Colombia with some groundbreaking news. Due to glacial melt, the country’s previously recognized highest peak has lost about 50 meters in elevation and after surveying the region, Eric officially confirmed a new highest point in Colombia—previously thought to be Pico Colón, but now officially Pico Bolívar, stands at 5,720 meters. Reaching its summit requires an eight-pitch climb, featuring 5.6 M2 WI2 terrain. As always, Eric has documented the entire expedition in a detailed trip report, which you can find linked in the show notes.

With this latest achievement, the twins have now collectively summited 146 of the 195 country high points across the world.

In today’s episode, we take a deeper dive into some of the most unique, bizarre, and dangerous experiences they’ve encountered along their mission to summit all the country highpoints. Mountains permanently closed for religious reasons, approaches through active minefields, climbing walls made of roots and jungle vegetation, and first ascents in the remote Canadian wilderness—this conversation truly showcases the extreme variety of challenges they’ve faced.

As I mentioned before, condensing 146 global mountain ascents into just two hours is nearly impossible. But my hope is that this conversation spreads the word about their mission and the incredible accomplishments they’ve achieved so far. Eric and Matthew Gilbertson are truly modern-day explorers in every sense of the word.

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Resources

Country Highpoints Website

Eric Gilbertson's IG

Books