In April of 2024, a YouTuber by the name of Michael Tracy began releasing a series of videos criticizing Jon Krakauer‘s Into Thin Air. Tracy has since posted 16 separate videos furthering his claims against Krakauer which go directly into the feed of his 130K subscribers.
Krakauer finally said enough is enough and has announced an extensive plan to defend himself with the release of an eight chapter detailed refutation of each of Tracy’s claims, beginning with the first chapter which was released today:
“In August 2024 I learned from comments in my Instagram feed that a YouTuber named Michael Tracy had been aggressively maligning my book, Into Thin Air, on his YouTube channel, which has more than 130,000 subscribers.
In April 2024, Tracy posted the first of at least sixteen videos (thus far) claiming to have identified numerous errors in my book about the 1996 Everest disaster, most of which he insists are lies intended to promote a deliberately false narrative. Almost all of Tracy’s allegations are demonstrably untrue. Given the damage Tracy is attempting to inflict on my reputation, and his flagrant misrepresentations of what happened on Everest in 1996, I feel the need to debunk as many of his dishonest claims as possible.
I have therefore written a detailed refutation of some of Tracy’s most egregious allegations, which I will present in eight separate chapters, starting today, with a new chapter posted every day or so going forward. The chapters will be available as videos posted on my new YouTube Channel, @JonKrakauerEverest, and also in written form on my Medium page. You can view Chapter One on both platforms by hitting the link in my profile.” – Jon Krakauer
The first video, titled “The YouTuber on a Mission to Trash My Book, Chapter One: Traffic Jams on Mount Everest in 1996” You can also read the entire chapter on his Medium page here.
