Nick Meyers, lead climbing ranger for the US Forest Service on Mount Shasta in California, has seen people make plenty of mistakes in the mountains over the past 20-plus years. But he’s seeing a new trend in 2026: hikers erring with AI’s help.
Meyers, who is also the director of the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center, said there have been at least three mishaps this year in which hikers or campers were led astray by AI or relied too heavily on the tech.
The most consequential came last weekend, when three 20-year-old men got lost and had to be rescued after summiting Mount Shasta, California’s fifth-highest peak, located in the Cascade Range at the northern end of the state.
The “novice climbers” had set out on Saturday on the Clear Creek route and established base camp at a prohibited site, the US Forest Service said. They woke up at 3 a.m. on Sunday and set out for the summit, equipped with enough food and water for an eight-hour hike. They summited 16 hours later at 7 p.m.
While trying to descend the 14,179-foot peak in the dark, the climbers went off route, and one of them injured his knee. The cellphone they’d been using for navigation died. They eventually had to stop and form a makeshift camp to spend the night, without adequate food, water, or equipment, the Forest Service said. At 9:30 a.m. on Monday, climbing rangers reached the party and helped them descend.
The group told the rangers they had used Google Gemini, YouTube, and the AllTrails app to plan their climb, authorities said.
“We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking,” the group told rangers, the Forest Service said.
Meyers said AI was not the “nail in the coffin” for the group, but that they had made a series of mistakes that all added up. He said the roughly eight-hour estimate they got from AI wasn’t generally wrong, but that the group hiked far slower than that, hadn’t packed enough provisions for the extra time, and kept going after blowing past the recommended turnaround time of around noon.
Still, he said the group itself believed AI contributed to their mistakes and that there may be too much reliance on the technology, especially among younger hikers.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. The company says on its website that Gemini can make mistakes and hallucinate, and that users should double-check its responses.
AI-related mishaps are on the rise
Meyers said rangers encountered two other people this summer who ran into issues after using AI to plan their trip.
He said one woman had set up camp in an area where camping was not allowed, as was clearly labeled at the site. When rangers informed her she couldn’t camp there, she said, according to Meyers, “Well, ChatGPT told me I could camp here.”
“We’re like, ‘Well, the sign says no camping,'” Meyers said.
In another incident, a man was talking to rangers about a hiking loop he was planning to take, but they were confused by what he was saying. When they asked exactly what he was planning, he pulled out a AI-generated map of the mountain and his route.
“The map was terrible, totally terrible,” Meyers said. “It had features that were on complete wrong sides of the mountain.”
OpenAI says on its website that ChatGPT can make mistakes and might respond confidently “even when it’s wrong.” The company also lists practical tips for how to use its chatbot responsibly, including: “Use ChatGPT as a first draft, not a final source. Please check important information.”
People making mistakes in the mountains is nothing new, and rangers have long advised hikers to do their homework, plan carefully, and consult official sources, such as the Forest Service or the National Park Service. AI can be used as one part of that planning, too.
“AI can be a great tool,” Meyers said. “But it’s not the only tool in the toolbox.”
AI is especially dangerous to rely on in the mountains, where you’re dealing with Mother Nature, unpredictable weather, and risky terrain. Meyers said hikers also need to rely on what he called “old school skills” — like talking to a real person, a ranger or an experienced climber, and getting information from firsthand sources.
Mount Shasta specifically has a website updated with the latest information, and climbers are encouraged to call to speak with a ranger and ask questions. AI can also be used to find the real people you need to call.
“Our website will pop up,” he said. “We’ve queried it.”
The reality is that safety in the mountains is dependent on a series of small decisions you make over and over again as you’re climbing, Meyers said, and part of that is based on “mountain sense” built up through experience.
“One thing we don’t ever want to do is discourage people from adventures,” Meyers said. “We just want to make sure they plan properly and encourage folks to start at the shallow end of the pool.”
His advice: Find a good mentor. Talk to real people. Visit the ranger station.
“You can do your online research,” he said, but also “fact-check yourself a little bit and use those critical thinking skills.”
Do you have a story to share about using AI in the outdoors? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.
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