B.C. teen rescued from 'Widowmaker' mountain trail says AI isn't to blame
Bryce Gowryluk, 16, was lifted from Crown Mountain by helicopter Saturday after accidentally taking what's called "the Widowmaker" climbing route.
Bryce Gowryluk, 16, was lifted from Crown Mountain by helicopter Saturday
Natalie Stechyson · CBC News
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A B.C. teen making global headlines after being rescued from the side of a mountain says AI is not the reason he became stranded.
Bryce Gowryluk, 16, an experienced hiker from Vancouver, is frustrated by this week's news stories claiming he used Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, to plan the alpine scramble that ended in a helicopter extraction from what's called "the Widowmaker" climbing route on Crown Mountain.
"People are really taking it out of context, because people think that I planned … or was coerced by the AI to go on the Widowmaker, which is not true," Gowryluk told CBC News.
"I just feel like people who are judging the situation are really unfair in their stance."
Volunteer rescue organization North Shore Rescue posted on Facebook Sunday that they responded to a call the day before about a hiker stranded on Crown Mountain, at the base of the final, vertical climbing wall of the route known as the Widowmaker.
They eventually located him by helicopter. A rescue tech belayed down to the hiker and moved him to "a suitable extraction point," and they airlifted him out.
The harrowing photos, and a rescuer's comments that the teen used AI to plan his route, quickly went viral.
A photo posted by North Shore Rescue on Sunday shows a teen who had to be rescued from the side of Crown Mountain, north of Vancouver, the day before. (North Shore Rescue/Facebook)
Gowryluk says he spent three days planning what was meant to be about the eight-hour hike Saturday from the top of Grouse Mountain to Crown Mountain and back. He consulted AllTrails and Google Maps, and admits he cross-referenced some information about the terrain using Claude, but says he mostly used the AI agent to help him with his packing list.
He left home around 7:30 a.m., took the bus to Grouse Mountain, rode the gondola to the top and walked to the alpine trailhead. His route was meant to eventually take him through a rugged scramble, but instead he mistakenly turned onto an unmarked route called the "Widowmaker Arete."
"There's no warnings," he said.
At first, he says, the terrain was "nothing too extreme," so he assumed he was on the right path — until it became too steep and too smooth to count as a scramble at all. Going back down, backwards, wasn't an option, and neither was staying still on the rock face, he said.
"That's when I realized something has gone terribly wrong," Gowryluk said, but he kept climbing, focused on putting his hands and feet wherever they would fit.
"I knew that fear would just lead me to panic, and panic would lead me to my death."
He finally made his way to a ledge wide enough to stand on and called his mom.
LISTEN | Rescuer recalls getting to teen stranded on mountain:
As It Happens6:32Rescuer cautions against 'blindly following' AI directions after chatbot leads teen hiker astray
A B.C. teen was rescued from a cliff known as "the Widowmaker" after he followed directions from the AI assistant Claude. Paul Markey, volunteer search manager with North Shore Rescue, tells As It Happens host Nil Köksal about the rescue — and the perils of hiking with a chatbot as your only companion.'I think I made a wrong turn'
Joelle Gowryluk says her phone rang in the early afternoon.
Bryce is an air cadet with survivalist training and is a certified belayer, she said, and so Joelle felt her son was well prepared for yet another hike — especially in a busy area like Grouse on a sunny, clear day.
But when she answered the phone and asked what was going on, Bryce said, "I think I made a wrong turn," Joelle said.
"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.'"
North Shore Rescue search manager Paul Markey said they were dispatched by the police to rescue Gowryluk, who he described as "an adventurous sort." And regardless of whether it was via chatbot or his own navigation, Markey says Gowryluk found himself on a significantly challenging alpine climbing route without the proper equipment.
"He was perched on a ledge," Markey told CBC Radio's As it Happens.
"He was very scared, as would [be] anybody in that particular position."
They flew to him quickly, Markey said, and hoisted two rescuers down to him from the helicopter. Then they got him to an area where he could safely be hoisted back up, and brought him back down to the base of the mountain.
"It was definitely, a really try-not-to-freak out experience," Gowryluk said, recalling dangling from the helicopter by a harness.
A still image taken from a video provided by Bryce Gowryluk of Vancouver shows the helicopter that rescued him from Crown Mountain on Saturday. (Bryce Gowryluk)
Experts warn about relying on AI
Bryce came home that day "pretty shocked," Joelle Gowryluk recalled. Typically, he returns from the mountains very happy and very tired, she said, "but a good tired."
Climbing is positive for his mental health, she added, saying she'll continue to encourage him to hike and climb safely — and always with another person — and hopes other teens will consider it, too. But she worries about the media attention that she feels has focused on Bryce's use of AI while downplaying his experience.
"He's no stranger to these North Shore mountains," she said.
When CBC asked Bryce Gowryluk when he might head back for another mountain hike, he replied, "probably Saturday."
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While the hiker and rescuer give different reports for how AI was involved in Gowryluk's ill-fated trip, it's just one recent example where chatbots were involved in people finding themselves in dangerous situations.
In September, for instance, maritime first responders warned people not to rely on AI for weather reports after rescuing a man whose kayak capsized on B.C.'s south coast.
He had tried to use an AI chatbot to determine the safest time to paddle.
Markey says the North Shore Rescue probably gets about 150 calls per year, but that Gowryluk's was the first call they'd ever had about someone potentially led into a dangerous area by AI. He's worried it will just be the first of many, he added, and cautioned climbers from "blindly following" a route suggested by artificial intelligence.
"Claude has never been onto that mountain," Markey said.
Bryce Gowryluk, now 16, is pictured hiking as a child. Bryce is an experienced hiker, an air cadet with survivalist training and a certified belayer. (Joelle Gowryluk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Natalie Stechyson has been a writer and editor at CBC News since 2021. She covers stories on social trends, families, gender, human interest, as well as general news. She's worked as a journalist since 2009, with stints at the Globe and Mail and Postmedia News, among others. Before joining CBC News, she was the parents editor at HuffPost Canada, where she won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award for her work on pregnancy loss. You can reach her at natalie.stechyson@cbc.ca.
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