November 21, 2024 • 10 mins
On Saturday 16th November, Kelvin Smith set off from the Hobart waterfront with two goals - to reach the top of kunanyi/Mount Wellington, and raise 40 thousand dollars for local charity Speak Up Stay Chatty -- all the while pushing a 240 kilogram piano.
In this episode of iHeart Tassie, Britt Aylen chats to Kelvin all about the Piano to Pinnacle.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I Heart Tazzy looking around Tasmania and just like, where
would I like to play? Well, I'd love to play
on the top of About Wellington, but yeah, driving the
piano up there this cove wouldn't give me the full
feeling of the location that it is.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
On Saturday, Kelvin Smith set off from the Hobart Waterfront
with two goals to reach the top of Kuninia Mount
Wellington and raise forty thousand dollars for local charity Speak
Up Stay Chatty Oh and bringing with him a two
hundred and forty kilogram piano along the way. The grueling
journey took twenty one hours and twenty three minutes, with
Kelvin walking through the night before finally reaching the summit
(00:45):
just ahead of the point Pinnacle Races on Sunday morning.
In this episode of iHeart Tazzy, will learn from Kelvin
all about the piano to Pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I Heart Dazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Kelvin Smith, thank you for joining us on iHeart Tazzy. First,
congratulations on an incredible effort pushing two hundred and forty
kilos all the way up in NINEU Mount Wellington and
making it to the top before the fastest runner in
the point of pinnacle. I'm pretty sure that means you
won the race.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't know about that. I think I got a
what was it, a twenty one hour head start.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So let's start at the very beginning. Tell me about
a piano for Tasmania.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, so, I guess I love piano, I love nature,
and back in maybe two thousand and there's probably twenty
seventeen eighteen some thoughts that have started staring in me
to get back into piano and then maybe connect it
with nature, and so I guess at the end of
twenty nineteen I did that, which kind of then coincided
(01:46):
with the beginning of COVID in twenty twenty and everything
kind of skyrocketed from there. I mean, I just love
getting the piano out onto a beach and having fun
and just kind of struck a chord with everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So what are some of you your favorite things that
you've done through that project.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It puts a hard one to answer, because I mean,
I just I love almost every time I'm out there,
I have a time where I just I don't know,
it's almost a spiritual moment where the music where I'm
in sync with the piano and the piano is in
sync with the kind of environment that we're in a
(02:27):
beach or a river or a mountaintop or and it's just,
I don't know how to describe it. It's just like
there's a one swift nature. Maybe I mean it sounds
really tacky, but it's kind of that. And so every
every place I've seen has been phenomenal. I mean we've
used helicopters and with Ukraine's and boats and so on,
and say some of them have been really I mean,
(02:50):
you know, kind of spectacular, but in terms of an
actual experience, every location is just brilliant.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I mean, it has awesome it is we live in
such a beautiful state.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What are you doing too?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So when and how did you come up with the
idea of the piano to pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I guess I'm a guy that loves a challenge, and
you know, I've had a few of those fas share
of those. I've actually put a bunch of them in
front of myself, you know, consistently and looking around Tasmania
and it's like where would I like to play? Well,
I'd love to play on the top of matt Wellington,
But you know, driving the piano up there, This kind
(03:33):
of wouldn't give me the full feeling of, you know,
the location that it is. It's how spectacular and I mean,
you know, hidden in cloud, it's got a weather spirit
of its own, you know, And I I guess it
was my head being in that space. It's like, well,
how am I going to get to feel this location appropriately?
(03:56):
And so it's like, well, if I pushed the piano
up there, I guess I feel it. So that's roughly
the you know, the zone that my thoughts were in
as as I was thinking that through.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Had you run the point of Pinnacle before?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Never? I've ridden up the mountain a few times in
preparations for this, just to help me feel the grades
and prepare myself for how long and hard it is,
but I've I've never run it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, And how do you train to push a two
hundred and forty kilo piano up a mountain? How long
did it take you to prepare?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I guess at one level, I been in preparation for
you know, four years, five years since I started a
piano TASMANI just moving pianos in general. But another like
specific training for this has been the last six months
and I have an old piano that doesn't work, and
so I just started I put that on a training
trolley and started pushing that up and down the garden
(04:53):
path at home, and then added more bricks, and then
added more bricks, and so it was kind of a
hundred or so kilos than the one we pushed up
the mountain, and then and then just found steeper and
steeper grades to push it on and longer and longer
training sessions, all kind of overseen by Matt Lancaster, who's
a specialist sports visio in South Avert.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How are you muscles feeling now?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You know, one of the things I didn't anticipate after
this event was just how quickly my body would recover.
I had in some of my longer training sessions two
or three weeks ago, my knees were in agony at
the end, and ankles were struggling and you know, twinges
in my back. But here I am three or four
(05:39):
days after the event, and I don't have any pain
in my knees or ankles or back or neck or
shoulders or anything. My muscles feel like they'll be back
to normal within a few more days, which I'm astounded at.
I guess it's testamate of Matt getting me prepared very
well for this event.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, peak physical fitness. Are you going to keep up
the strengths training?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I don't know. I think so. I think so. I
have other kind of ideas that are certainly not landed
yet that so I might kind of test out in
the future, but would be quite difficult as far as
permits and so on a concern. But one of the
things also that I didn't anticipate was in terms of recovery.
(06:30):
The event like absolutely exhausted every little piece of energy
that I had, and just emotionally, it's messed with me
in ways that I just did not at all appreciate
that it could. And so just these last few days
(06:52):
I really struggled to even talk about the event, even
till this morning, struggled to talk about the event without
his in my eyes. And part of it, I think
I'm really going to struggle to talk about Sir the month,
then it maybe the years. I honestly I can't explain why.
I mean, there's no traumatic experience involved. It was just
(07:13):
really intense and really really difficult.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Kelvin Smith, fresh from his piano to Pinnacle Feet at
the weekend on iHeart Tazzy. Coming up, we'll talk about
his fundraising efforts to Speak upstag Chatty and whether he
managed to meet his forty thousand dollars fundraising goal.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I Heartazzy, I heart as he.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Kelvin Smith there playing his piano at the Hobart Waterfront
on Saturday, before pushing the two hundred and forty kilogram
instrument all the way to the summit of qu Nini
Mount Wellington, two hundred and seventy one meters above sea level. Now, Kelvin,
you've raised a tremendous amount of money to Speak Up
Stage Chatty, the local charity founded by Mitch McPherson. Do
(08:11):
you have a total figure at the moment.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
We're still raising and we're passing through I think twenty
three or twenty four thousand dollars, and we'd love to
see that just continue to increase. The men Stay Chatty
a phenomenal work in our communities. And you know, the
aim of pushing a piano off a mountain was a
vivid metaphor of all of us, you know, at some
point in our life, pushing something uphill and a whole
(08:35):
lot of vulnerability there and just needing a support team
around us to keep us in conversation and keep smiling
and give us the encouragement we need to take the
next step.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, it's a very important cause.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, I mean, Mitch is just amazing him and the
whole team. The work that they do in our communities
is phenomenal and that's been a real honor to collaborate
with them around this event.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And if people want to donate, what is the best
way for them to do that?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So I guess either go to stay Saddy social media,
they'd be links throughout their pages, or they can go
to Mine Piano or Tasmania and there's a link pinions
to the top top of the page. She one of
the posts there. So yeah, reasonably it will be easily accessible.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You've done something absolutely incredible in the name of a
very very important cause. So congratulations Again. I do have
to ask what's next?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I never advertise what is next, and that's usually
not because I'm trying to hide that. It's usually because
I don't know. I tend to be one of these
guys that just waits for the universe to drop an
iDeer into my brain, and when it lands, often I
will stupidly say yeah, let's do that. And so I
(09:59):
honestly i'd I don't have a specific what is next, but
I am certain that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There is a next. Well, I can't wait to find
out what eventually what it's going to be. And that's
it for this episode of I Heart Tazzy. Join us
next week for the final edition of twenty twenty four,
but until then, you can find many more Tasmanian stories
in the iHeart Tazzy podcast feed. I'm fresh, Ailen. Thanks
for your company.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I Heart Tazzy.
I Heart Tazzy looking around Tasmania and just like, where
would I like to play? Well, I'd love to play
on the top of About Wellington, but yeah, driving the
piano up there this cove wouldn't give me the full
feeling of the location that it is.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
On Saturday, Kelvin Smith set off from the Hobart Waterfront
with two goals to reach the top of Kuninia Mount
Wellington and raise forty thousand dollars for local charity Speak
Up Stay Chatty Oh and bringing with him a two
hundred and forty kilogram piano along the way. The grueling
journey took twenty one hours and twenty three minutes, with
Kelvin walking through the night before finally reaching the summit
(00:45):
just ahead of the point Pinnacle Races on Sunday morning.
In this episode of iHeart Tazzy, will learn from Kelvin
all about the piano to Pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I Heart Dazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Kelvin Smith, thank you for joining us on iHeart Tazzy. First,
congratulations on an incredible effort pushing two hundred and forty
kilos all the way up in NINEU Mount Wellington and
making it to the top before the fastest runner in
the point of pinnacle. I'm pretty sure that means you
won the race.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I don't know about that. I think I got a
what was it, a twenty one hour head start.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So let's start at the very beginning. Tell me about
a piano for Tasmania.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, so, I guess I love piano, I love nature,
and back in maybe two thousand and there's probably twenty
seventeen eighteen some thoughts that have started staring in me
to get back into piano and then maybe connect it
with nature, and so I guess at the end of
twenty nineteen I did that, which kind of then coincided
(01:46):
with the beginning of COVID in twenty twenty and everything
kind of skyrocketed from there. I mean, I just love
getting the piano out onto a beach and having fun
and just kind of struck a chord with everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So what are some of you your favorite things that
you've done through that project.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It puts a hard one to answer, because I mean,
I just I love almost every time I'm out there,
I have a time where I just I don't know,
it's almost a spiritual moment where the music where I'm
in sync with the piano and the piano is in
sync with the kind of environment that we're in a
(02:27):
beach or a river or a mountaintop or and it's just,
I don't know how to describe it. It's just like
there's a one swift nature. Maybe I mean it sounds
really tacky, but it's kind of that. And so every
every place I've seen has been phenomenal. I mean we've
used helicopters and with Ukraine's and boats and so on,
and say some of them have been really I mean,
(02:50):
you know, kind of spectacular, but in terms of an
actual experience, every location is just brilliant.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I mean, it has awesome it is we live in
such a beautiful state.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What are you doing too?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
So when and how did you come up with the
idea of the piano to pinnacle.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I guess I'm a guy that loves a challenge, and
you know, I've had a few of those fas share
of those. I've actually put a bunch of them in
front of myself, you know, consistently and looking around Tasmania
and it's like where would I like to play? Well,
I'd love to play on the top of matt Wellington,
But you know, driving the piano up there, This kind
(03:33):
of wouldn't give me the full feeling of, you know,
the location that it is. It's how spectacular and I mean,
you know, hidden in cloud, it's got a weather spirit
of its own, you know, And I I guess it
was my head being in that space. It's like, well,
how am I going to get to feel this location appropriately?
(03:56):
And so it's like, well, if I pushed the piano
up there, I guess I feel it. So that's roughly
the you know, the zone that my thoughts were in
as as I was thinking that through.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Had you run the point of Pinnacle before?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Never? I've ridden up the mountain a few times in
preparations for this, just to help me feel the grades
and prepare myself for how long and hard it is,
but I've I've never run it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, And how do you train to push a two
hundred and forty kilo piano up a mountain? How long
did it take you to prepare?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I guess at one level, I been in preparation for
you know, four years, five years since I started a
piano TASMANI just moving pianos in general. But another like
specific training for this has been the last six months
and I have an old piano that doesn't work, and
so I just started I put that on a training
trolley and started pushing that up and down the garden
(04:53):
path at home, and then added more bricks, and then
added more bricks, and so it was kind of a
hundred or so kilos than the one we pushed up
the mountain, and then and then just found steeper and
steeper grades to push it on and longer and longer
training sessions, all kind of overseen by Matt Lancaster, who's
a specialist sports visio in South Avert.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
How are you muscles feeling now?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You know, one of the things I didn't anticipate after
this event was just how quickly my body would recover.
I had in some of my longer training sessions two
or three weeks ago, my knees were in agony at
the end, and ankles were struggling and you know, twinges
in my back. But here I am three or four
(05:39):
days after the event, and I don't have any pain
in my knees or ankles or back or neck or
shoulders or anything. My muscles feel like they'll be back
to normal within a few more days, which I'm astounded at.
I guess it's testamate of Matt getting me prepared very
well for this event.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, peak physical fitness. Are you going to keep up
the strengths training?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I don't know. I think so. I think so. I
have other kind of ideas that are certainly not landed
yet that so I might kind of test out in
the future, but would be quite difficult as far as
permits and so on a concern. But one of the
things also that I didn't anticipate was in terms of recovery.
(06:30):
The event like absolutely exhausted every little piece of energy
that I had, and just emotionally, it's messed with me
in ways that I just did not at all appreciate
that it could. And so just these last few days
(06:52):
I really struggled to even talk about the event, even
till this morning, struggled to talk about the event without
his in my eyes. And part of it, I think
I'm really going to struggle to talk about Sir the month,
then it maybe the years. I honestly I can't explain why.
I mean, there's no traumatic experience involved. It was just
(07:13):
really intense and really really difficult.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Kelvin Smith, fresh from his piano to Pinnacle Feet at
the weekend on iHeart Tazzy. Coming up, we'll talk about
his fundraising efforts to Speak upstag Chatty and whether he
managed to meet his forty thousand dollars fundraising goal.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I Heartazzy, I heart as he.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Kelvin Smith there playing his piano at the Hobart Waterfront
on Saturday, before pushing the two hundred and forty kilogram
instrument all the way to the summit of qu Nini
Mount Wellington, two hundred and seventy one meters above sea level. Now, Kelvin,
you've raised a tremendous amount of money to Speak Up
Stage Chatty, the local charity founded by Mitch McPherson. Do
(08:11):
you have a total figure at the moment.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
We're still raising and we're passing through I think twenty
three or twenty four thousand dollars, and we'd love to
see that just continue to increase. The men Stay Chatty
a phenomenal work in our communities. And you know, the
aim of pushing a piano off a mountain was a
vivid metaphor of all of us, you know, at some
point in our life, pushing something uphill and a whole
(08:35):
lot of vulnerability there and just needing a support team
around us to keep us in conversation and keep smiling
and give us the encouragement we need to take the
next step.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, it's a very important cause.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, I mean, Mitch is just amazing him and the
whole team. The work that they do in our communities
is phenomenal and that's been a real honor to collaborate
with them around this event.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And if people want to donate, what is the best
way for them to do that?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So I guess either go to stay Saddy social media,
they'd be links throughout their pages, or they can go
to Mine Piano or Tasmania and there's a link pinions
to the top top of the page. She one of
the posts there. So yeah, reasonably it will be easily accessible.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
You've done something absolutely incredible in the name of a
very very important cause. So congratulations Again. I do have
to ask what's next?
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, I never advertise what is next, and that's usually
not because I'm trying to hide that. It's usually because
I don't know. I tend to be one of these
guys that just waits for the universe to drop an
iDeer into my brain, and when it lands, often I
will stupidly say yeah, let's do that. And so I
(09:59):
honestly i'd I don't have a specific what is next, but
I am certain that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There is a next. Well, I can't wait to find
out what eventually what it's going to be. And that's
it for this episode of I Heart Tazzy. Join us
next week for the final edition of twenty twenty four,
but until then, you can find many more Tasmanian stories
in the iHeart Tazzy podcast feed. I'm fresh, Ailen. Thanks
for your company.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I Heart Tazzy.
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