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Low reported severity Media Coverage

Pyrenees: national park agent says two novice hikers following a ChatGPT-generated route and map were lost and exhausted in the wrong valley above Cauterets

On the evening of 21 July 2026 an agent of the Pyrenees National Park met two young women hiking above Cauterets (Hautes-Pyrenees) who were exhausted, worried and lost: they were looking for the Lac d'Estom but were in the Marcadau valley. According to the agent's account to ICI Bearn Bigorre and other outlets, they showed him the route and map they had obtained from ChatGPT, and he found that nothing on it was right: walking times, altitudes and the positions of lakes and a mountain hut were wrong, with the lake placed three valleys from where it is. He redrew a shorter itinerary suited to novices; no injury or call to rescue services is reported. The account comes from the agent; the hikers were not interviewed and the chatbot conversation was not published.

AI system
ChatGPT (reported)
Occurred
21 Jul 2026
Reported
24 July 2026
Event location
France
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological DistressOther Material Harm
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts
4 claims: 4 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
2 people

AI system as recorded: ChatGPT, which the two hikers told the national park agent they had used to generate their hiking route and map, according to his account in French regional and national media

What Happened

The encounter. According to the account the Pyrenees National Park agent gave ICI Bearn Bigorre, it was almost 8 p.m. in the Marcadau valley when two young women, exhausted and worried, asked him where the Lac d'Estom was. He told them they were in the wrong valley, they handed him their phone, and he found that nothing on their map was right. ICI reports that they were following the itinerary they had asked ChatGPT for. La Depeche du Midi, which also spoke to the agent, reports that their route was based on their exchanges with ChatGPT, which had provided a detailed but wrong map, and that the two were setting out on a three-day trip with two nights of bivouac. The agent described walking times that did not fit, wrong locations (the Lac de Gaube beside the Wallon refuge and the Lac d'Estom just behind it, although it is three valleys away) and altitudes that bore no relation to reality. 20 Minutes, citing franceinfo, gives the date as 21 July 2026 and reports that the AI had estimated a walk of 1 hour 45 minutes where the guide estimated about ten hours.

What happened next. The agent told them to follow the signposts and redrew a less ambitious itinerary because they were novices wearing running shoes. He told ICI it could have been worse: had one of them been injured and told rescuers they were at the Lac d'Estom, rescuers would have searched the wrong place. He said he had met about thirty people lost since the start of the summer because of AI-generated maps or wrong maps found online. ICI reports that the Gavarnie mountain police (CRS) had not yet been called out for rescues linked to AI-generated maps.

Limits. Every account comes from the same witness, the park agent; the hikers were not interviewed, their prompts and the chatbot's replies were not published, and the identification of ChatGPT rests on what the hikers told him. The franceinfo headline calls the encounter a rescue; ICI's fuller account describes the agent redirecting the hikers on the trail.

Reported harm

According to the park agent, the two hikers were lost in the wrong valley, exhausted and worried late in the day, and had to abandon their planned route for a shorter one.

How Harm Occurred

Two novice hikers followed a route and map they had obtained from ChatGPT that placed lakes and a mountain hut in the wrong valleys and gave wrong walking times, and were found lost and exhausted in the wrong valley in the evening.

Outcome

Resolved

The park agent redrew a shorter itinerary for the two hikers and they continued. No injury or rescue call is reported; ICI reports that the Gavarnie mountain police (CRS) had not yet been called out over AI-generated maps.

What remains unknown

  • The hikers' prompts and ChatGPT's actual replies, and which version of the service they used.
  • The hikers' own account; only the park agent was interviewed.
  • How long the hikers had been lost before the agent met them.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The park agent who met the hikers looked at the map on their phone and says it was wrong in walking times, locations and altitudes; the hikers told him they had generated the route and map with ChatGPT (ICI, La Depeche, 20 Minutes, Vertige Media). The chatbot's output is therefore the route the hikers followed into the wrong valley. Their prompts and the chatbot's full replies were not published.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On the evening of 21 July 2026, in the Marcadau valley above Cauterets, two young women hiking to the Lac d'Estom were exhausted, worried and in the wrong valley when a national park agent met them.

Causal attribution. The park agent's account, given to several outlets; the hikers were not interviewed.

  • ici.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Il était presque 20h, dans la vallée du Marcadau, et deux jeunes filles épuisées et inquiètes m'ont demandé où était le lac d'Estom, explique Julien Vignasse. Je leur ai dit qu'elles n'étaient pas dans la bonne vallée.'
  • 20minutes.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Elles ont finalement été retrouvées épuisées et perdues le 21 juillet dernier, aux alentours de 20 h, sur les hauteurs de Cauterets, dans la vallée du Marcadau'
  • ladepeche.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'ont eu la chance de croiser Julien Vignasse, agent du parc national des Pyrénées, qui rentrait d'une opération de comptage des bouquetins ce mardi soir'
Reported The two hikers were following an itinerary and map they had obtained from ChatGPT.

Causal attribution. The identification of ChatGPT rests on what the hikers told the park agent, as he relayed it.

  • ici.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Elles suivaient l'itinéraire qu'elles avaient demandé à ChatGPT, sur les hauteurs de Cauterets.'
  • ladepeche.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Un tracé qu'elles avaient fondé sur la base de leurs échanges avec... Chat GPT. L'intelligence artificielle leur avait même fourni une carte détaillée, mais complètement fausse...'
  • 20minutes.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'C’est à ce moment-là que les deux jeunes femmes ont révélé qu’elles avaient utilisé ChatGPT pour générer la carte.'
  • vertigemedia.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Interdites, les jeunes femmes lui avouent avoir généré la carte sur ChatGPT.'
  • franceinfo.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Julien Vignasse a secouru deux randonneuses perdues dans les Pyrénées après qu’elles ont utilisé une carte générée par ChatGPT.'
Reported The map was wrong in its walking times, locations and altitudes: it placed the Lac de Gaube beside the Wallon refuge and the Lac d'Estom just behind it, although the lake is three valleys away.

Causal attribution. The park agent's assessment of the map he was shown; the map image published by ICI and La Depeche was described from its captions.

  • ladepeche.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Les temps de marche n'étaient pas adaptés, les localisations étaient fausses avec le lac de Gaube à côté du refuge de Wallon et celui d'Estom juste derrière, alors qu'il est trois vallées plus loin, même les altitudes n'avaient rien à voir.'
  • ici.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'elles m'ont tendu leur téléphone et je leur ai dit que rien n'allait sur leur carte, tout était faux.'
  • 20minutes.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'La durée de la marche, estimée à 1h45 par l’IA, était totalement erronée, l’accompagnateur ayant estimé la durée de leur trajet à une dizaine d’heures.'
Reported The agent redrew a less ambitious itinerary for the two novices, who wore running shoes, and no injury or rescue call is reported.

Causal attribution. Outcome as described by the park agent.

  • ici.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'je leur ai refait un itinéraire en revoyant à la baisse ce qu'elles avaient prévu parce qu'elles étaient novices, elles portaient des baskets de running'
  • ladepeche.fr(opens in new tab) supports · French
    'Julien va leur proposer un itinéraire bis, elles qui partaient pour trois jours et deux nuits en bivouacs.'

Sources

5 sources inspected, from 4 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in French by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. ICI Bearn Bigorre (Radio France) report of 25 July 2026 interviewing the park agent; HTML read in full, HTTP 200. Applies to s1.

Read in French by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. La Depeche du Midi report of 25 July 2026 with its own quotes from the park agent and captions of the two maps; HTML read, HTTP 200 (subscription banner, article text present). Applies to s2.

Read in French by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. 20 Minutes report of 30 July 2026, which cites franceinfo for the date and details; HTML read in full, HTTP 200. Applies to s3.

Read in French by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. franceinfo video page of 24 July 2026; only the standfirst text was readable (the video was not viewed). Applies to s4.

Read in French by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-27 and translated by the research agent (an AI) into English; no human translator or reviewer was involved. Vertige Media feature of 1 October 2026 based on a later phone interview with the park agent; HTML read in full, HTTP 200. Applies to s5.

Event countries: France. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

ICI and La Depeche place the encounter in the Marcadau valley above Cauterets in the Pyrenees National Park (Hautes-Pyrenees). The hikers' nationality and residence are not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-27: Published as a chatbot-advice case: a Pyrenees National Park agent told ICI Bearn Bigorre and La Depeche du Midi that two novice hikers he met lost and exhausted in the wrong valley were following a route and map they had obtained from ChatGPT, which he found wrong in its walking times, locations and altitudes.

People described

Two young women on a hiking trip in the Pyrenees, described by the park agent as novices

People reported harmed in this case

2 people

2 AI participants · 0 other people harmed

Two hikers ("deux jeunes randonneuses", ICI), who had themselves asked ChatGPT for the itinerary, so both are counted as direct users. The agent's figure of about thirty people lost over the summer concerns other encounters and is not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#chatgpt#trip-planning#hiking#pyrenees

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Pyrenees: national park agent says two novice hikers following a ChatGPT-generated route and map were lost and exhausted in the wrong valley above Cauterets. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-cauterets-pyrenees-park-agent-says-two-hikers-following-chatgpt-route-were-lost-in-the-wrong-valley

BibTeX

@misc{2026_cauterets_pyrenees_park_agent_says_two_hikers_following_chatgpt_route_were_lost_in_the_wrong_valley,
  title = {Pyrenees: national park agent says two novice hikers following a ChatGPT-generated route and map were lost and exhausted in the wrong valley above Cauterets},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-cauterets-pyrenees-park-agent-says-two-hikers-following-chatgpt-route-were-lost-in-the-wrong-valley}
}

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