How I make my hiking guides with AI, from my own films and GPS
My 58 hiking guides are built with AI from my own films, GPS tracks and notes, checked by a second AI, and sold as PDFs with GPX files of each route.
I make long films about hiking alone, mostly for YouTube: about 250 over ten years, from the Dolomites to Patagonia to the Karakoram. People often ask in the comments how to do the hike themselves. This fall I started answering with a guide for each route, built with AI, first Codex and now Claude, from things that already existed.
How it started, in my own words
Making hiking guides was always the plan, and I'd tried a couple of times without it really working. Most recently I made guides on Gumroad, Substack and Patreon, and had a little success with those, mostly because my Alta Via 1 video was taking off on a few social platforms, so there was traffic going there. I made a bunch of sales.
Then, in the airport about to head out to Norway, I realized how good AI, specifically Codex, was at making the guides for me and gathering my information to build them: my AllTrails recordings, my itinerary, everything I'd said in the videos. So I set it loose to make one good guide, and I realized I could eventually do this for close to 50 of them. It took a good month to get them all to a point where I liked them, and maybe another week to build out the website and the payment workflow and everything that goes with selling guides. The guides are one of the main reasons I have a website now.
It felt really good. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the first guide came out, and that made me realize there was a lot of potential for this to be a real product. So much of the selling and marketing could be automated too, which excited me. But I've done the hard work: going on these hikes, capturing the photos and videos, recording the AllTrails activity, making the behind-the-scenes sections of the videos where I talk about my experience. There's a lot of unique, valuable information in these guides. AI let me organize it in one clean format and add the missing pieces and helpful things I wouldn't have thought of. If I make a hiking guide on my own, it's usually just from my perspective, but a lot of other people out there trying to do these hikes would get something different from a guide made for them. I think it's a really good product, and I plan to keep improving it.
How a guide gets made
AI gathers what already exists (my film, my AllTrails GPS recordings, my photos, the film's description and my trip notes) and writes a plain record of what I actually did, day by day. Then it works out the numbers and draws the maps from my GPS, builds the guide in one shared design, and a second AI checks it. It goes on sale as a PDF, with my GPX files in the same download.
The rule: only my own trip
When we rebuilt my old Alta Via 1 write-up as a proper guide, Claude asked me for twenty minutes of new input, like which hut I liked best. I said no: "I've already given personal accounts in my YouTube videos, and I want these guides 100% built with AI now."
So my voice comes only from what I've already said or written: my films, their descriptions, my old write-ups, my GPS, photos and receipts. Claude never invents an opinion, a rating, a meal or a feeling. When a guide says "I," I did it. The record also fills gaps: on the Salkantay Trek (the film) my GPS and the map data named the shuttle drop-off I never knew, Challacancha.
The same rule picks the routes. Claude ranked my films in KraigOS, the database we built to run my work: most-watched first, but only routes I walked with my own GPS. So the list opens with Hornstrandir in Iceland, and there's no Kilimanjaro guide: in that film I turned back before the summit.
Numbers and maps from my GPS
Every distance, climb and high point is worked out from my GPS files the same way, with the elevation smoothed so small wobbles don't count as climbing. Apps count differently: for Lofoten (the film), AllTrails shows about 20,500 feet of climbing, and the guide says about 17,900 and explains why. GPS has limits too: on the K2 Base Camp trek (the film), my GPS read lower than published sources at the Gondogoro La, so the guide gives both and says to plan for the higher one.
The GPX files, one per day plus the whole route, work in AllTrails, Gaia GPS, Garmin or Organic Maps, with timestamps stripped.
A script draws every map: my GPS line over open elevation data (Mapzen's Terrain Tiles), with lakes, rivers and peaks from OpenStreetMap. Each day's elevation profile shows where the climb is before you start it.
The first maps were, in my note at the time, "grey and boring," so every map was redrawn in one colour style with the route in red, the same relief as my animated map videos.
One design for every guide
My note on the first draft: the content was pretty good, but it "could be designed nicer and have better and more photos." Claude laid out the same pages two ways, and I picked the minimal one: white, black and grey with one red, from the Alta Via trail signs. The cover is always the film's YouTube thumbnail.
Every guide has the same parts:
- Up front: the trip at a glance and straight answers to the five planning questions Claude found in the comments on my two Alta Via 1 films (narrated and ambient): how many days, when to go, how to get beds in the huts, am I fit enough, and what will it cost.
- Each day: a big photo, the day's numbers, what happened in my words, and links to that day in my film.
- At the back: what I carried, how to load the GPX files, a dated list of things to check before you go, and a trip sheet to print.
One build script makes every PDF, so a layout fix for one guide fixes all 58.
A second AI checks the first
Before a guide goes on sale, a separate Claude session that didn't write it checks every fact that could change against official sources and every number against the GPS. Newer guides also get a pass from Google's Gemini. On the Salkantay guide it caught:
- A closing time. The Machu Picchu sanctuary entry at Hidroeléctrica, on Day 3, closes at 4:30 p.m. (the park service), so a slow walker could arrive too late. The guide says so now.
- Words I never said. A draft had me calling Machu Picchu "one of the most unique places I've been." In the film I said "you got to visit this spot, it's really unique." The guide uses my words.
The time-sensitive checks run again on launch day: when the Laguna 69 guide went on sale on October 4 (the film), a forest fire had just stopped visits to the lake, so the guide said so from day one. Anything about my story, my opinions or the price comes back to me.
Where to get them, and the gear links
Only on my website: $19 each, or in bundles by region or all together. The PDF and GPX files come in one download, new editions come to the same link, and every guide's page shows real pages from inside and a free day by email.
Since October, most guides have a "Gear for this route" section with affiliate links to the gear I used or its current version. No company paid to be in a guide. Where a company was part of my trip, the guide says so: my Salkantay trip was with a local company that helped sponsor the film.
What I learned, and what's next
Pick one way to count climbing and use it everywhere. And a second AI catches what the first one misses, including words I never said.
Next: sharper photos from my full library, free to buyers as an update, and the next route, Colorado's San Juan Mountains, which is nearly ready.
FAQ
Are the guides written by AI?
Yes. AI builds them, first Codex and now Claude, from my own films, GPS recordings, photos and notes, and never invents an opinion or experience. A second AI checks the facts before a guide goes on sale.
Where does the information come from?
My films, my AllTrails GPS recordings, my photos and my old write-ups. Things that change, like opening hours, permits and prices, are checked against official sources and dated.
What's in a guide?
A PDF with the trip at a glance, straight answers to the big planning questions, every day with its own map and elevation profile, what I carried and a printable trip sheet, plus GPX files.
Are there affiliate links?
Yes, in the gear sections of most guides, to the gear I used or its current version. No company paid to be in a guide, and if a company was part of my trip, the guide says so.
How much is a guide, and how do I get one?
$19 each on my website, or in bundles. The PDF and GPX files download right away, and there's a 30-day refund.
Is there a free sample?
Yes. Every guide's page shows real pages from inside, and you can get one day free by email.