Gilbertson's picture of the Ayrybaba massif, which includes the highest point in Turkmenistan
Eric Gilbertson (born 1985 or 1986)[1] is an American mechanical engineer[2] and amateur mountaineer, highpointer, and mountain surveyor. Among his highpointing accomplishments are climbing the high point of all 50 states of the United States and 144 of 196 countries worldwide. His surveying activities have resulted in a reevaluation about the actual elevation and location of several mountain summits, and he published his findings in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research and Progress in Physical Geography.
Gilbertson grew up in Kentucky[4] and said that his passion for mountaineering started with family trips to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Later, he was involved with the MIT Outing Club.[5] Eric and his twin brother Matthew[1] climbed the high points of all 50 states in the United States, a project that took them five years.[5] Along with Matthew, Eric is on a mission to climb the high point of every country in the world.[6][2][5] Their first country high point was Denali in May 2010.[5]As of October 2025[update], Gilbertson says he has climbed 144 of 196 country high points.[7]
In 2020, he set the fastest known time to climb the 100 tallest mountains in Colorado.[7] He also has a project to climb the tallest 100 mountains in Washington in winter.[8]
According to Explorersweb, in 2023, Gilbertson became the third American to achieve the Snow Leopard award by summiting all five peaks above 7,000 metres (23,000ft) in the former Soviet Union. Gilbertson said that climbing Pobeda was more difficult than climbing K2 without supplementary oxygen.[2]
Mont Sokbaro, the high point of Benin, which Gilbertson surveyed in 2021
Along with climbing, Gilbertson is also interested in surveying mountains.[8] Gilbertson uses professional surveying equipment such as GNSS receivers to precisely find the elevation of mountain summits.[10] Along with Matthew, Gilbertson ascertained the high points of Togo, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast.[1][11]
He discovered that the summit of Mount Saint Helens has been eroding at a rate of 4 inches (10cm) annually since 1989. The mountain has lost so much elevation it is no longer one of the 100 highest peaks in Washington.[8] He has surveyed a different elevation and/or true summit for several peaks in Washington state, including Sherpa Peak, Buck Mountain, Mount Berge, and Mount Buckner.[12]
He has been surveying the five historical icecap summits in the lower 48 states to track ice melt over time. Gilbertson concluded that four of the five—Mount Rainier, Eldorado Peak, East Fury, and Liberty Cap—had lost around 20–30 feet (6–9m) of ice. Colfax Peak had maintained its elevation and it, along with Liberty Cap, remained the only ones that still had ice on the summit year-round.[8][13] He published his findings in a 2025 coauthored paper in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, where the ice melt is attributed to climate change and an increase of temperature of nearly 5.5°F (3.1°C) since the mid-twentieth century, with most of this increase happening since 1990.[14][15][16] For Mount Rainier, Gilbertson first reported his findings in 2024.[17] He determined that its summit had also moved from the Columbia Crest to a point on the southwest crater rim that melts down to bare rock at 14,399.6 feet (4,389.0m) over the summer.[4]
In 2018, he climbed Jabal Sawda, which was previously believed to be the high point of Saudi Arabia, but determined that it was shorter than Jabal Ferwa.[1] The Saudi Climbing Federation subsequently changed the official high point.[18]
On October 5, 2025, he surveyed Crestone and East Crestone peaks in Colorado, determining that East Crestone is 14,299.3 feet (4,358.4m) high, and around 3.6 inches (9.1cm) taller than Crestone, which was previously considered the true summit of the Crestone cluster. Gilbertson's measurements found the opposite of another survey using LiDAR. He said that "The simplest explanation is they just hadn’t been measured accurately enough until now to know which was taller".[19][7][10][20]
↑Gilbertson, Eric; Gilbertson, Matthew (2025). "Determination of new national highpoints of five African and Asian countries—Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo". Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment. doi:10.1177/03091333251401102.
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