Twenty-five feet up the rocky wall, the glint of a metal ring beckons. Threading his rope through this next steel clip is imperative: it’s the only way he can stay on the wall and reach the top.

He strains upward, tangling his left foot in his harness’s braided nylon rope. His outstretched fist slips on the slick metal. His footing crumbles away, and the cord wrapped around his left leg tugs him downward headfirst.
He streaks towards the floor at 36 feet per second.

Five feet from possible paralysis, his partner yanks the rope taut.

Benaiah Treviño jerks back to reality.

Sophomore Benaiah Treviño has dedicated his high school life to climbing.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Treviño drives to Texas Rock Gym. He practices there for three hours each day—often far longer in the weeks leading up to a competition.

“It’s a commitment,” Treviño said. “If you want to do competition climbing, you have to rule out a lot of other things.”

Between nine plus hours a week of training and work at Sam Sann Warriors, which trains young athletes for American Ninja Warrior, Treviño often finds it hard to manage his school life and extracurriculars.

“I find myself struggling to balance stuff,” Treviño said. “[Climbing] actually forced me to drop some of my harder pre-AP [and] AP classes.”

Still, Treviño remains dedicated to the sport he discovered in seventh grade when he needed something new as the pandemic started and baseball ended.

“If you’re training as much as I am, you have to love the sport,” Treviño said. “Just have fun with it.”

Even though rock climbing is an individual sport, Treviño highlights the community created by his team, which he travels with to competitions around Texas and the Hill Country.