Peter Baily

Mountaineer; Founder, Because It's There

1997 was a big year for Peter Baily. In January, he was climbing in Krabi, Thailand; February, he was in Korea on the icefalls in Soraksan; March, he was putting up new routes on limestone stacks in Yang Shuo, China; May he was on McKinley trying the Ramp route; June was in Yosemite climbing the Nose and Half Dome; October he kissed his future wife and hasn’t done as much climbing since.

Ever since he can remember, Baily has preferred being off the ground. His favourite game, aged 8, was pine tree hopping. He would spend hours moving from tree to tree bending one trunk into another; until something would inevitably snap and he would find himself holding a branch on the ground, winded, but nor deterred.

His transition from tree hopper to mountaineer came when he stood on top of the Matterhorn in 1985. It was as if he had walked through the door into another world; what had previously been in books, films and the stories of others was now in his veins and he didn’t draw breath. The pine trees were replaced by the 4000m peaks around the Alps.

In 1990, he moved to Hong Kong to work as a copywriter in advertising and the climbing continued with trips to the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, China, Nepal, New Zealand. And then one day, he was struck by an extraordinary thought on reaching a summit somewhere in the Indian Himalayas.

This led to his fascination with what you learn when you are in the mountains – about yourself (especially the relationship between body, mind and emotions), about how you relate to others and about how you are in the world. To Baily, the mountains are more interesting as a white canvas for projecting your being than a peak to be conquered.

With the idea of mountains as learning environment, Peter set up Because It’s There in 2004 where he now coaches individuals using inspirational challenges.