A 23 year-old Kelowna man is climbing to great heights.
Shamus Boulianne competed in the Paraclimbing National Championships last weekend in Austin Texas and took home a silver medal.
Boulianne says he got into climbing four years ago.
"I got in to it when a friend told me about the local climbing gym called Gneiss Climbing. I went on a whim one day and really enjoyed it and kept going back."
He then got into competitive paraclimbing in 2021.
"Another professional paraclimber Maureen Beck reached out and suggested that I go to compete in the world cup that was happing in Los Angeles that year. From her suggestion, I just decided to leap into it. That was my first competition." he said.
Boulianne was born with a condition called ectrodactyly, which is also known as split hand/foot malformation (SHFM). It's a condition characterized by the absence or malformation of one or more of the fingers or toes.
"I am missing the middle three. You could characterize the ones I have as a thumb and a pinky. It's not exactly comparable to a regular hand."
"The two fingers I do have don't bend and so I tend to use a lot more of the side of my hand as well as the knuckle. It just means I have to adapt a lot the way I climb," he added.
Paraclimbing is sport climbing for athletes with disabilities. Athletes are placed into a sport class based on their disability, to allow those with a disability of a similar nature to compete within the same category.
"Climbing is a really individual sport and you can really start climbing at any ability level. For someone with a disability, it really is an amazing sport to get into because it's just you and the wall and there is always going to be a climb you are capable of and from that starting point you push yourself and see how far you can get. There is no limitation," Boulianne said.
Boulianne says he hopes to compete in all four world cups throughout the 2023 season.
His Instagram can be found here.
