Bryce Gowryluk says that Claude AI isn’t to blame for his scary rescue on October 4. Photos: North Shore Rescue
A 16-year-old hiker from Vancouver who was rescued from British Columbia’s Crown Mountainhas spoken out after it was reported that he needed help because he used Claude AI.
“People are really taking it out of context, because people think that I planned to go on the Widowmaker Arete, or was coerced by the AI to go on the Widowmaker, which is not true,” Bryce Gowryluk told CBC News a few days after he was pulled from a cliff face by helicopter rescue teams. “I just feel like people who are judging the situation are really unfair in their stance.”
According to reports, Gowryluk, an avid hiker, was attempting to hike from North Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain to Crown Mountain on the morning of October 4. While it was previously reported that he used Anthropic’s artificial intelligence Claude AI to plot his route between the two mountains, Gowryluk explained to reporters that he had spent three days before setting off using Google Maps and AllTrails to figure out how he was going to do it. He does admit to using Claude AI, but mostly to figure out what to pack.
After taking a gondola up Grouse, the hiker set off towards Crown. It’s not an easy hike, marked by soaring cliffs and stunning views, but Gowryluk felt up to the task. As an air cadet with survivalist training and a certified belayer, he knows his way around the outdoors. Hours later, he called for help from the base of a vertical climbing wall of the route known as the Widowmaker. Rescue crews were deployed and pulled him from his precarious perch to safety.
It was reported that Claude AI sent him off course, but the teen says that’s not the case. The route he meant to take wasn’t an easy one, but he accidentally turned onto an unmarked route that led to the Widowmaker Arete.
All was well for the first few hours, but it became increasingly more obvious to Gowryluk that he was off course. He kept going until the rock became too steep and smooth to continue.
“There’s no warnings,” he said. “That’s when I realized something has gone terribly wrong. I knew that fear would just lead me to panic, and panic would lead me to my death.”
He was able to make it to a small ledge and called his mother.
“‘I think I made a wrong turn,'” the teen’s mother said her son told her. “He wasn’t frantic. He just said, ‘Mom, I have to call the North Shore Rescue. I can’t go any further. I’ve climbed too high, and I can’t get back down.'”
Gowryluk and his mother both worry that the focus on his use of artificial intelligence to help plan for his trip will discourage others from a healthy, outdoor activity. For Gowryluk, he doesn’t plan on stopping. His next hike is planned for this weekend.
