Nick Meyers, chief climbing ranger for the US Forest Service at Mount Shasta in Californiahas seen people make many mistakes in the mountains over the past twenty years. But he sees a new trend in 2026: walkers who wander with the help of AI.
Meyers, who is also director of the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center, said there have been at least three accidents this year in which hikers or campers were led astray by AI or relied too heavily on the technology.
The most consequential event occurred last weekend, when three 20-year-old men became lost and had to be rescued after climbing Mount Shasta, California’s fifth-highest mountain, located in the Cascade Range at the northern end of the state.
The “novice climbers” had set off on the Clear Creek route on Saturday and set up a base camp in a restricted area, the US Forest Service said. They woke up at 3 a.m. Sunday and headed to the summit, equipped with enough food and water for an eight-hour hike. They met 16 hours later at 7 p.m
While trying to descend the 4,000-meter peak in the dark, the climbers went off route and one of them injured his knee. The cell phone they had 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. Monday at 9:30 am, climbing guards reached the party and helped them descend.
The group told the rangers they had deployed Google GeminiYouTube and the AllTrails app to plan their climb, authorities said.
“We were relying too much on AI instead of our own critical thinking,” the group told rangers, according to the Forest Service.
Meyers said AI wasn’t the “nail in the coffin” for the group, but that they had made a series of mistakes that all added up. He said the estimate of about eight hours they got from AI was generally not wrong, but that the group hiked much slower, did not pack enough provisions for the extra time and continued after exceeding the recommended lead time of around noon.
Still, he said the group itself believed AI contributed to their mistakes and that there may be too much trust in the technology, especially among younger hikers.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. The company reports this on its website Gemini can making mistakes and hallucinating, and that users should double check responses.
The hikers rescued on Mount Shasta said they used Google Gemini to plan their trip. U.S. Forest Service, Shasta-Trinity National Forest
AI-related accidents are on the rise
Meyers said rangers encountered two other people this summer who got into trouble after using AI to plan their trip.
He said a woman had set up camp in an area where camping was not allowed, as the campsite clearly posted. When rangers told her she couldn’t camp there, according to Meyers, she said, “Well, ChatGPT told me I could camp here.”
“We say, ‘Well, the sign says no camping,’” Meyers said.
In another incident, a man spoke to rangers about a hiking loop he was planning to take, but they were confused by what he said. When they asked what exactly he was planning to do, he pulled out an AI-generated map of the mountain and its route.
“The card was terrible, completely terrible,” Meyers said. “It had features that were on the wrong side of the mountain.”
OpenAI reports this on its website that ChatGPT can make mistakes and respond confidently ‘even when it is wrong’. The company also provides best practices for using the chatbot responsibly, including: “Use ChatGPT as an initial draft, not as a final source. Review 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 also be used as part of that planning.
“AI can be a great tool,” says Meyers. “But it’s not the only tool in the toolbox.”
AI is especially dangerous to rely on in the mountains, where you have to deal with Mother Nature, unpredictable weather and risky terrain. Meyers said hikers also need to rely on what he called “old school skills,” such as talking to a real persona ranger or an experienced climber, and obtaining information from first-hand sources.
Mount Shasta specifically has a website that is updated with the latest information, and climbers are encouraged to call to speak to a ranger and ask questions. AI can also be used to find the real people you need to call.
“Our website will be up,” he said. “We asked for it.”
The reality is that safety in the mountains depends on a series of small decisions you make over and over again as you climb, Meyers said, and part of that is based on “mountain sense” built up through experience.
“One thing we never want to do is discourage people from adventures,” Meyers said. “We just want to make sure they plan properly and encourage people 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 research online,” he said, but also “do a little bit of fact-checking yourself and use your critical thinking skills.”
Do you have a story to tell about using AI in the outdoors? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.
