Climbing Every Country's High Point with Eric and Matthew Gilbertson

Eric Gilbertson is attempting to climb every country's high point. He's two-thirds done.

His clone (Matthew Gilbertson) is joining him for most of the mountains. You can follow these twins on Instagram.

Eric uses the United Nations' definition of a country. There are 193 countries. He tosses in Antarctica to make 194.

This page features all my interviews about Eric's extraordinary quest!

Subscribe to my WanderLearn podcast & YouTube channel to get the latest episodes.

Episode #1: Climbing K2 & Everest Without Oxygen

Eric's Everest documentation

Eric's K2 summit documentation

Eric's Kangchenjunga Summit story

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Episode #2: Bureaucratic Barriers in Chad, Libya, Bhutan

Each high point has either a technical/physical challenge (e.g., K2 & Everest) and/or a bureaucratic challenge.

In this episode, Eric discusses three country high points that mainly have a bureaucracy that is stopping him, not the lack of oxygen.

I've climbed Chad's and Libya's high points, so I know what he's talking about.

Listen to discover why I could do it but why Eric has been blocked.

Let me know if you want to join us on a future hike up these two mountains.

He also talks about Bhutan's sacred summit.

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Episode #3: 2 K2 & Everest Climbers Swap Mountain Stories

Everyone loves coincidences. During my month in Estonia, I bumbled into Krisli Melesk, who bumbled into Eric Gilbertson on K2. Eric & I were scheduled to record a podcast a few days after I met Krisli, so I invited her to join the show as a surprise guest!

Eric Gilbertson is in the process of climbing to the highest point in every country. He's done 143 out of 193!

This is first of a two-part series, featuring Eric & Krisli. Subscribe to get next week's episode where we will discuss Eric kite surfing across Greenland!

You must listen to my first two interviews with Eric Gilbertson!

Krisli Melesk is also remarkable. She deserves her own episode and book! Her list of adventures is long and mind-blowing.

We only delved into a couple of her countless adventures in this episode.

This episode focuses on K2 and Everest, especially their joint experience on K2. Although they didn't climb K2 on the same team, they met on K2 and summitted a few days apart.

We end the show by talking about Kanchenjunga, the world's third-highest mountain, with an elevation of 28,169 feet (8,586 meters). It is situated in the eastern Himalayas on the border between Sikkim state, northeastern India, and eastern Nepal, 46 miles (74 km) north-northwest of Darjiling, Sikkim.

We discussed why Eric summited Kanchenjunga and why Krisli did not. It's a shame because Krisli would have been the first Estonian to summit the third-tallest peak had she succeeded. But she may return!

Note: In the show, I refer to Krisli as "Kris," but the automatic subtitle generator on the video transcribed her name as "Chris." Also, I apologize for the mediocre audio quality. We had tech issues.

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