May 19, 2006

LONDON: It was a discovery that flabbergasted conservationists cleaning Britain's highest mountain last weekend. There, beneath a pile of stones on the plateau that caps Ben Nevis, was a piano.

Speculation began as to how it had arrived on such a blustery clime: perhaps it was a prank by a team of students and a helicopter pilot, perhaps a tornado had dropped it there?

But an even more incredible truth has emerged. It was carried there by one man as part of a charity stunt 35 years ago.

"It must be mine," said Kenneth Campbell, 64.

In 1971, possessed by the idea of carrying a piano to the top of Ben Nevis, Mr Campbell began training for a feat that nearly killed him. His first attempt, with a 160kg piano, failed.

"I got to 1000 feet (300m)," he said. "It was too heavy. It was strapped to my back and I fell from a ridge, I fell down about 100ft and it shattered."

Mr Campbell, however, was still in one piece and in August he made a second attempt, this time with a lighter instrument. "I got to 1400ft before I tore a muscle in my arm," he said.

Some would have taken this as a sign that pianos were not intended to go up mountains. Not Mr Campbell. That September he strapped himself to a third piano, weighing 100kg. This time he made the summit, whereupon he sat down and played Scotland The Brave.

"It was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records that I carried it up, but not that I played a tune," he said. "I'm not much of a pianist but I can manage that one."

The money he raised went to the Imperial Fund for Cancer Research, which made him a lifelong governor.

The Times