YOU need to be fairly grounded to be able to keep your wits - and limbs - about you as you scale walls many metres high.

However, 12-year-old George Upson from Ringwood has done just that and will be representing London and the south-east in the national finals of the British Youth Climbing Competition.

The Ringwood School pupil is already training three times a week for his big task at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, on June 30, when he takes on Britain's other finest climbers aged between seven and 15.

Mum Donna says her son has been a high climber from his earliest days in playgrounds. She added: "While most other children would be inside the apparatus he would always be right at the top. He took up climbing properly following a visit to Chessington three years ago. There was a mobile climbing frame and he just sped up it. He was a natural."

George was put through to the finals after notching third overall in the regional heat in London last month.

George trains at QE Leisure Centre in Wimborne and at Calshot Activity Centre.

He says he would like to be a climbing instructor when he grows up or perhaps a plumber because they earn more.