Nestled among sprawling juniper forests where eagles soar overhead, the Jabal Sawda peak has long been one of Saudi Arabia’s crown jewels for mountaineers.
At 2,999m it was also considered the kingdom’s highest peak, until two twin mountaineers, Matthew and Eric Gilbertson, dethroned it in 2018, finding it was shy by about three metres compared with the Jabal Ferwa summit.
For more than a decade, the 36-year-old scientists have set out to discover new high points in countries around the world, rewriting the record books in places across the Middle East and west Africa.
They have so far reached the summit of more than 100 mountains and have identified new high points in Togo, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast.
Matthew, a research scientist at Lockheed Martin