Fairbairn is a top New Zealand sport climber who has been competing on indoor climbing walls and in bouldering competitions since 2006.
This year, he won his under-14 age group section in a clean sweep of the Oceania Championships, the New Zealand Championships (both held in Auckland in October) and the New Zealand National Cup (held in four rounds at various venues from April).
He last achieved a clean sweep in 2008, competing in the under-12 age group.
Since claiming the Oceania title, Fairbairn is turning his attention to achieving a grade 25 (regarded as a hard grade) rock climb by the end of summer.
"For the last few weeks, I have just been doing no climbing at all. I have decided to climb again now.
"The Oceanias, that was the best one this year. It had the most interesting climbs, whereas the national cup, that was the first competition and it was the hardest because it was really early [in the season]," he said.
Fairbairn moves up next year to the under-16 category, where he will compete for the next two years, and expects to be challenged by the larger cohort of older boys competing at that level.
Last year, Fairbairn struggled with illness but still placed third in his age group at the Oceanias and at the New Zealand Cup.
But he could not compete at the national championships.
Fairbairn thought he had further blown his chances on Christmas Eve when he broke his foot slack-lining on a fence chain.
He accidently pulled a concrete fence pillar on to himself and, although he recovered quickly, he did not do as much training for this season as he had wanted.
Fairbairn said he felt confident he could win the Oceania championship, although he knew the result could be close and unpredictable because the final climb is always held on a new, unsighted route.
He trains three times a week at BaseCamp for up to two and a-half hours at a time.
Fairbairn added yoga to his programme this year, which he said helped him hold "almost straight out splits" in one particularly difficult section of the Oceania final.
He has also begun strength training, swimming, cycling and running.
Fairbairn said he was grateful for grants from the Upper Clutha Sports Trust, Skeggs Foundation and other supporters.
He is about to embark on a $10,000 fundraising campaign to get him to Austria next year.
