Mount Wilbur is a peak of the Fairweather Range, the southernmost part of the Saint Elias Mountains. It lies approximately southeast of Mount Fairweather and northwest of Mount Crillon. It is set within Glacier Bay National Park. The peak is the higher of a pair of peaks, Mounts Wilbur and Orville, named after the Wright brothers who invented the airplane, the form of transportation that contributed greatly to the development of Alaska. The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1967 by the United States Board on Geographic Names.
Though not a particularly high peak in absolute terms, Mount Wilbur does stand quite high above local terrain, due to its proximity to the ocean: the summit is only from tidewater at the head of Lituya Bay to the southwest.