Almost a week after successfully pushing his 240kg piano from the bottom of kunanyi/Mt Wellington to the top, Kelvin Smith has taken time to celebrate his mission.
The full journey from the Hobart waterfront to the summit took Smith — the ‘Piano Man of Tasmania’ — and his team 23 hours and 45 minutes.
Mitch McPherson from Speak Up! Stay ChatTY, the mental health organisation that benefited from the stunt, said it was a “remarkable effort” that had raised awareness and started important conversations.
“When Kelvin first called and reached out about it, it was a bit of a like, ‘Oh yeah, this will be a great idea’,” McPherson said.
“And we probably didn’t have as much faith in him as what we probably should have from the outset.”
Smith said he was inspired by the metaphor of pushing something uphill, which he believes many people can relate to in terms of their own mental health journeys.
“There were times where, I had limited strength, I had limited energy and dark thoughts,” he said.
“I think my team guided me along the one singular path that existed to the finish line.”
The musician said there were many moments of doubt along the way.
“My trainer, at one point, he’s like, ‘Can you see the leaf on the road?’ and it’s five metres in front of me,” Smith said.
“And I was like ‘Yeah, I can see the leaf’. And he’s like, ‘Do you think you can get to the leaf?’. And I’m like, ‘I think maybe I can’.”
“We would take the 10 steps needed to get to the leaf on the road and it was literally that level of intensity.”
While Smith hasn’t ruled out taking on future challenges, he doesn’t plan to attempt another piano push anytime soon.
“I’m happy that I’ve got very new eyes now. Whenever I look at the mountain, I can see that mountain with a different eyes. I don’t think I’ll tackle that one again,” he said.
The event raised nearly $25,000 for Speak Up! Stay ChatTY.
