...And it seems the harder Tori tries and the higher Tori climbs, the more anxious people are to see her fall.

Serious rock-climbing is largely an individual sport. There are no cheering crowds, teammates, refs or coaches. The battles are solitary—you versus the mountain, the elements, God, yourself. It's not a sport for team players and making nice; it's for kicking ass and tearing up the side of a sheer piece of rock as adrenaline boils in your blood.

One of its mantras: The only thing the sport of climbing needs is fewer climbers

Fragmented and somewhat antisocial, the community is hostile to outsiders, and that hostility has only increased as the sport has gained popularity. One of its mantras: The only thing the sport of climbing needs is fewer climbers.

What, like that's not true?

"when you don't drink, smoke, swear, party...."


And she calls herself a climber??? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

...If you think that’s true then you should view your climbing community as separet to mine.

are those mini head phones as one of her accessories? :shock:

…and now I find out that it really just all about “kicking ass and tearing up the side of a sheer piece of rock”…I’m really bummed to think of all the time I’ve wasted pursuing this sport for the wrong reasons.

As such, it tends not to attract the average athlete, appealing instead to risk-takers, ascetics, scruffy extreme-sport types who live to climb, who drive endless miles to competitions and sleep in their trucks.

The community itself tends to be disorganized and perpetually underfunded.

What, like that's not true?

http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/articles.html#flygirls

And your thoughts on this??

what a terrible article. ......... and yes i sent them an email to let them know.

I dont know why, but it bugged me at the Phoenix bouldering contest how she would jump down and give everyone this "political" handwave after every dyno competition attempt she made.

I still have troubles with the commercial aspect she presents.

What climbing site is slamming her? I've never seen it here!

10|1 that she gets knocked up on prom night! :mrgreen:

I dont know why, but it bugged me at the Phoenix bouldering contest how she would jump down and give everyone this "political" handwave after every dyno competition attempt she made.

Tori has received much more attention than Lisa or these girls not because of her skills at climbing, but because of her self-promotion and marketabliliy. This certainly rubs some people the wrong way.

20 minutes of my life has been wasted

i think that is the one part of the article that i agree with most..

This article was a big waste of my time. 20 minutes of my life has been wasted. I need to put a twist on it so I don't feel so robbed.

On the Tori Allen Article-
First of all, only climbers within the climbing community should be writing articles about the problems of THEIR sport and the people it involves. Obviously, your incompetence shines through in projecting an article bashing climbers and "stereotypical popular kids" and not what it was intended for, a vote for Tori Allen. And even if that poor example of beginner journalism were to get its point across clearly, the point is moot. Tori Allen has no respect in the climbing community because she is the epitomy of introducing climbing into a capitalist and money hungry society. True climbers do what they do because of a love for the sport, the freeing exilaration of letting go for a while. Of scaring your hand in some crack, hundreds of feet above the ground, while searching through your rack for that perfect piece of gear to help ease the andrenaline rush pumping through your blood...at least for the next 15 feet or so. If climbing were about publicity, then the types of people who climb wouldn't be doing it...we would leave that job for Paris Hilton or Ashon Cusher. It's one thing to be recognized for your climbing accomplishments (Peter Croft, Lynn Hill, Tommy Caldwell, Steph Davis, Dean Potter, Dan Osman, Chris Sharma, John Long, Jim Wickwire, Pete Athens, Reinhold Messner...just to name a few), but it's another thing to try to monopolize and subjugate the sport of climbing to meet one's own personal desires. And setting up a scarecrow argument in defense of the climbing community and then tearing it down was one of the worst peices of journalism I have seen in a long time. Do the climbing community a favor next time you want to bash us...your homework. Learn something about what you're writing about. Don't just take the opinions of a girl and try to shove it down our throats. After we vomit it back out we'll hit you over the head with a #5 Cam and try to knock some sense into you (or at least get you to change your profession).

Again, just my opinion. I have not spoken to her personally so I may have her all wrong.

She chooses to "advertise herself, and in my opinion she chooses to be critiqued as well. The media is not seeking her out, she is seeking the media out for the attention. So, I feel no shame in stating my opinion. I am not jealous, but I do have differences in beliefs. I believe I want to read about/follow climbers that give ME the impression they are involved in something because they have a true passion for it and not just for the attention. I dont hate Tori, I dont even know her personally. How could I hate her. But the opinions I form from her media push causes me to lose interest in following her career. I am not sure how you equate any of this information to HATE. The topics are not even related.

I "haters" is slang for people who say negative things or form negative opinions about someone they haven't met...usually due to jealousy or differences in belief.

If climbing were about publicity, then the types of people who climb wouldn't be doing it...we would leave that job for Paris Hilton or Ashon Cusher.

After we vomit it back out we'll hit you over the head with a #5 Cam and try to knock some sense into you.

therefore I have no interest in her self promotion. The original post was about "poor Tori" I am not implying any feelings for or about her. As I said, I do not know her personally. I only know what I read. I am simply saying. I have no sympathy for Tori. She self promotes herself, she has to accept the bad press that can come with it.

Last I read, didn't Tori's father admit it was all his idea to start the climbing doll? Didn't he admit to shamelessy promoting her? The media promoting Tori? Not my perception. But then again, what do I know. I happen to like Anna Kournikova. She looks great in a bathing suit :)

(seriously, 15 year olds that climb 5.hard are a dime a dozen nowadays).

I was bashing the sh*tty article...isn't that the point?

IRegardless of your personal opinion on Tori Allen, the Hubers and Pete Zabrok - they are talented climbers whose efforts and accomplishments benefit the sport of climbing.

She’s a good girl, loves her mam a
Loves Jesus and America too
She’s a good girl, crazy ’bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too

Okay, now I've seen lots and lots of ink on Tori but can someone please tell me what some of her groundbreaking climbing accomplishments are?

Well, when she was 11 she took second at the World Finals, almost beating the winner, Tiffany Campbell, and became the youngest female to onsight 13a. She also won the X-Games and the Gorge Games. At age 12 she won the adult ABS competition. At age 13 she won the adult U.S. Nationals.

-Jay

Thanks for the info. So basically she's a really good competition climber.

Does she get outside and send hard stuff or is she primarily indoors? Just curious.

Well, when she was 11 she took second at the World Finals, almost beating the winner, Tiffany Campbell, and became the youngest female to onsight 13a. She also won the X-Games and the Gorge Games. At age 12 she won the adult ABS competition. At age 13 she won the adult U.S. Nationals.

-Jay

You ever hear of supply and demand? There is no reason to supply unless there is a demand....not the other way around. Her father isn't going to come up with the idea unless he thought there was a demand.

...Another 15 year old climber and fellow pole vaulter competitor that I have met has purportedly said that Tori is extremely ego centric...

Climbsomething wrote:
It's popular opinion that Tori Allen is a self-serving, egotistical, fluff-brained, overhyped, underdressed, spoiled b----. Why would the magazine portray any different?.


Really?

I had never even heard the name Tori Allen until 2 weeks ago. I was back in Indiana doing the family thing for the holidays, and was able to get up to the gym in Indy for some much needed climbing. A few days earlier I had posted to rc.com that I needed a partner for that day but nobody responded. I drove up to the gym in hopes of finding someone else in a similiar spot, but no luck. Then I was grateful to get a young girl named Tori to climb routes with. It was a little odd at first climbing with a girl half my age, especially one that kicked my old trad climbing a$$ without breaking a sweat. I later found out that it wasn't just Tori, it was TORI ALLEN!, but you wouldn't have known it by talking to her. She was very down to earth, and she patiently belayed me while I flailed on some nasty overhanging sloper problem that she had just stuck. When I went to leave, I asked the guy (I think his name was My) how much I owed him and the manager came over and said: "No, you're visiting from out of town. There's no charge. Thanks for stopping by." I later found out that he was her father.

Maybe public opinion is as quoted above, but I'll go with personal experience over public opinion almost every time. In my personal experience, Tori was nice and down to earth and not at all egocentric or "fluff-brained." Her dad seemed pretty cool, too.

Forget all those accomplishments....have you seen her dyno! It's totally unbelievable!

I'm a journalist so I can comment on the article. The writer is at fault having obviously paid attention to stereotypes and not facts.The power of journalism must not be underestimated.A lot of climbers now have a dislike of this 15 year old because of a biased and uninformed writer's perception of the climbing community. Don't blame the girl but the stupid writer-I can't use the word journalist in this case.

with a humble spirit.

I happen to know the Journalist and Tori personally. The journalist knows nothing about climbing - although I've invited her - and it shows in her writing.

The article just churns more animosity although she attempted to make Tori look like an average girl

Humble people don't generally have their own line of action figues, especially at the age of 14 or 15! :roll:

By the way, phugganut, that is a moving story. It is nice to hear there might be a real person behind the stories.

climb_plastic, do you know Tori personally? Just curious.

Tori Allen's success comes from her flexibility and the use of her monkey-like fingers and toes and her overly long arms. Sometimes Tori hangs from a rock using nothing more than the ends of two fingers.
...<snip>...
It was the monkeys in Africa that first taught Tori Allen how to climb and she's never forgotten them. She has a collection of more than 200 toy monkeys and at competitions she throws out tiny monkey dolls to the crowd. Not surprisingly, Tori Allen always climbs with a tiny Curious George doll to remember her first climbing parter - Georgie, the monkey in Africa.

I wonder if the IHSAA has stopped to consider the fact that I will never get a shot at going to a state meet let alone winning a state title because the boys at the state level are vaulting 12 inches higher than the women's world record. (I could be qualifying to represent the USA at the Olympics in vault before I'd even be competing in a state track meet at that rate.)

Allen, a junior at Lawrence Central High School, has a line of other products, including a poster, a recently published book and rock-climbing gear. But she said she still couldn't believe it when her agent asked about the action figure.

I wonder if the IHSAA has stopped to consider the fact that I will never get a shot at going to a state meet let alone winning a state title because the boys at the state level are vaulting 12 inches higher than the women's world record. (I could be qualifying to represent the USA at the Olympics in vault before I'd even be competing in a state track meet at that rate.)

Tori has the article up on her website. She must think it isn't all bad.

-Jay

is she another Katie Brown (where is Katie these days?). In short, just how good is she to attract this adulation?

Like someone already said, teenagers that climb 5.hard are a dime a dozen. This one gets a lot of extra attention for some reason...it probably is her dynos.

so if you know her personally, then, please, end this discussion and tell us what she's like. (let's be serious... 7 pages on tori allen's disposition seems a bit excessive)