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…
