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A Niwot high schooler is chasing his competitive climbing dreams

Trevor Smith only has one hand, but he's rocketing up the ranks of competitive climbing.

NIWOT — As a kid, Trevor Smith would stare out the window when his parents drove through Boulder Canyon. He saw the climbers scaling the canyon walls and dreamed of being like them one day.

"Whatever you say," he remembered his mom and dad saying.

At that point, they were just happy to have a healthy kid. Trevor was born a month and a half premature. He had stomach problems battled asthma. And there were other complications.

"They were scared," he said of his parents. "They didn't even know that I was going to be missing my arm."

Trevor's right arm ends just below the elbow.

"My parents, their first reaction was like, 'how is he going to tie his shoes? How is he going to learn to ride a bike?'" he said.

Those things were no problem. So, two years ago, Trevor decided to chase his rock climbing dreams.

"When I got into climbing it was difficult to find someone that wanted to climb with me," he said. "There's only so much they can do with me right?"

Trevor eventually found a mentor and within two years he qualified for the World Paraclimbing Championships in Innsbruck, Austria.

"The whole entire experience has just been kind of a whirlwind," he said.

The Niwot High School junior had to take a week off school and, without any sponsors, his family had to fund the trip. But just a few weeks ago he made it through the qualifiers and into the championship round.

"I wasn't nervous at all because I was just so excited and happy to be there after spending so much time and effort and showing that it's all going to pay off," he said.

And it did pay off. Trevor came home with a silver medal.

Now he's training at EVO Rock + Fitness in Louisville for Nationals, and he's got his eye on the gold at next year's World Championships in Tokyo.

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