- This topic has 17 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated May 18, 2006 at 10:57 am by Pisces.
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May 17, 2006 at 5:22 pm #1037847
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Piano found on Britain’s highest mountain[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Scottish Press Association
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Wednesday May 17, 2006
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]A musical mystery today surrounded Britain’s highest mountain after a piano was discovered near its summit.[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Volunteers clearing stones from the 4,418ft peak were astonished when they discovered the musical instrument on Ben Nevis. An appeal has now been launched to find out how and why the piano came to be within 200 metres of the top of the mountain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The piano was recovered at the weekend by 15 volunteers from the John Muir Trust, the conservation charity which owns part of Ben Nevis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The squad was removing litter and stones called cairns from the summit plateau when they spotted the top of the piano.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“Our guys couldn’t believe their eyes,” said trust director Nigel Hawkins.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“At first they thought it was just the wooden casing but then they saw the whole cast iron frame complete with strings.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“The only thing that that was missing was the keyboard – and that’s another mystery.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“Maybe it’s hidden somewhere else on the mountain.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]He added that a biscuit wrapper with a best before date of December 1986 was found under the piano, giving a clue as to when it was taken there, but not why.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Volunteer group organiser Sandy Maxwell, of Glasgow, said this was the largest, heaviest and most unusual object they had found on the mountain.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“We have a constant battle against litter being left on Britain’s highest mountain – but this elevates being a litter lout sky high into a completely different category. We are now trying to track down who took it there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“We may even give them an outstanding invoice for 20 years storage of a piano under a cairn on Ben Nevis.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]After finding the piano, the volunteers broke it up and asked around 30 members of the public to help carry bits off the mountain. Mr Maxwell said they believed the piano was taken to the top of Ben Nevis for a wacky stunt.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“We assume it would be a student stunt or charity run but we certainly have no record of it,” he added.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]“We would be very keen to hear from anyone with information about the piano.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006[/FONT]May 17, 2006 at 6:12 pm #1073831words fail me…..just unbelievable
:alien_abdMay 17, 2006 at 6:26 pm #1073823Why smash it up!? Seems a bit sad.
I’d leave it up there if it was me.
May 17, 2006 at 6:32 pm #1073818BioTech wrote:Why smash it up!? Seems a bit sad.I’d leave it up there if it was me.
A piano left on Ben Nevis since 1986 (minus its keyboard) isn’t gonna be much good for providing musical accompaniement for a high-altitude Highland fling; left there its the sort of thing full of gnarly bits of metal that little creatures could get stuck in and hurt themselves…
It would also encourage other fly tippers to dump stuff in the region or other numpties to deposit worse random items up there.
May 17, 2006 at 8:36 pm #1073824General Lighting wrote:A piano left on Ben Nevis since 1986 (minus its keyboard) isn’t gonna be much good for providing musical accompaniement for a high-altitude Highland fling; left there its the sort of thing full of gnarly bits of metal that little creatures could get stuck in and hurt themselves…It would also encourage other fly tippers to dump stuff in the region or other numpties to deposit worse random items up there.
I suppose.
I can’t help thinking it’s a bit of fun with a hint of mysticism though. It’s something that I’d be happy to come across up the top of a mountain anyway. Would give me something to think about.
Yeah, animals can get caught maybe but there are plenty of natural hazards that are just as dangerous. I’m an animal lover so wouldn’t want any of the little fuzzy things to get hurt but I can’t see it causing that much of a problem.
Encouraging people to dump stuff? Yeah you are right about that. Still think it’s a shame though.
May 17, 2006 at 8:41 pm #1073825bit differnt, but a few years ago, the bishop was surprised to wake up and find a renualt 5 on the roof of the cathedral
it took about a week and a crane to get it down
never did work that one out
:crazy_fre
May 17, 2006 at 8:49 pm #1073819globalloon wrote:bit differnt, but a few years ago, the bishop was surprised to wake up and find a renualt 5 on the roof of the cathedralit took about a week and a crane to get it down
never did work that one out
:crazy_fre
Its happened a few times with large buildings…
Assuming you mean Exeter Cathedral thats a huge building with plenty of odd random spaces like most religious buildings and plenty enough roof space.
you get a scrap vehicle which you take apart and reduce to (more) easily portable parts. some bits are heavy but no more so than the sort of beams and girders and building supplies which would already have to be brought up to the higher parts of the building during a normal programme of maintenance.
These bits are then smuggled into the building by with people with inside knowledge (such as those already fixing the roof who know its layout), stored and at a convenient time the entire vehicle is re-assembled in the target position
and no, it wasn’t me but fair play to whoever did do it 😀
May 17, 2006 at 8:58 pm #1073826it was the fact that they had to get a crane in to get the chassis down that really made it
May 17, 2006 at 10:14 pm #1073832General Lighting wrote:It would also encourage other fly tippers to dump stuff in the region or other numpties to deposit worse random items up there.Oh yeah, I bet there are loads of people wandering roung the summit of Ben Nevis with bags of rubbish, just needing that extra ounce of encouragement to dump them.
That’s why it’s been there for nearly 2 decades before being discovered.
May 17, 2006 at 10:31 pm #1073820Jon_tooth wrote:Oh yeah, I bet there are loads of people wandering roung the summit of Ben Nevis with bags of rubbish, just needing that extra ounce of encouragement to dump them.That’s why it’s been there for nearly 2 decades before being discovered.
Most of these conservationists look after not just the mountain; but the other bits around it in the Fort William Area.
They get stacks of people exploring the area. 100,000 people try to climb the summit each year; I would expect millions more go rambling in the region. Not all of them are as good at cleaning up after themselves as they should be…
May 17, 2006 at 10:35 pm #1073827you might expect to find the occasional discarded bagpipe up there
bet they had’fun’ getting this beaty up there… i was a removals man for a while and i know how much these things weigh just going up a flight of stairs :scared:
May 18, 2006 at 10:03 am #1073829it would be very cool to play the piano on the top of Ben Nevis though.
May 18, 2006 at 10:05 am #1073828harmlessfeet wrote:it would be very cool to play the piano on the top of Ben Nevis though.Agreed 🙂
May 18, 2006 at 10:09 am #1073830orchestratek!
May 18, 2006 at 10:15 am #1073833Jon_tooth wrote:Oh yeah, I bet there are loads of people wandering roung the summit of Ben Nevis with bags of rubbish, just needing that extra ounce of encouragement to dump them.:lol_dork:
Innit. If you’re gonna flytip stuff, there’s gotta be easier places than the top of a mountain.
They had something about this on BBC Breakfast News this morning. Apparently some guy carried it up there on his back for a challenge / charity or whatever, and it seems he forgot to bring it back down.
Some other people were supposed to go and remove it or something, but obviously it looks like they never did.
May 18, 2006 at 10:43 am #1073821Pisces wrote:Innit. If you’re gonna flytip stuff, there’s gotta be easier places than the top of a mountain.Flytippers would concentrate on the access roads and the bottom rather than the top; but once you let one person dump stuff everyone will have a go… those chaps who found the piano mentioned previous incidents of cairns being used to dump rubbish…
you’ve obviously not seen what even so-called “nature lovers/ramblers” can do to places; not whole bin loads but there’s still litter left behind. (why else would people have to be tidying up the place anyway?)
makes it ironic when they often grass up raves where sometimes the clearing up afterwards is more effective!
Quote:They had something about this on BBC Breakfast News this morning. Apparently some guy carried it up there on his back for a challenge / charity or whatever, and it seems he forgot to bring it back down.Some other people were supposed to go and remove it or something, but obviously it looks like they never did.
I hope they do send them the invoice for the costs, or at least publicise which bunch of muppets did this..
May 18, 2006 at 10:51 am #1073834General Lighting wrote:Flytippers would concentrate on the access roads and the bottom rather than the top; but once you let one person dump stuff everyone will have a go…you’ve obviously not seen what so-called “nature lovers/ramblers” can do to places; not whole bin loads but there’s still litter left behind. (why else would people have to be tidying up the place anyway?)
makes it ironic when they often grass up raves were sometimes the clearing up afterwards is more effective!
I personally wouldn’t think, “oh look, there’s a piano, it must be ok to drop my crisp packet here”.
But I take your point.
May 18, 2006 at 10:57 am #1073822Pisces wrote:I personally wouldn’t think, “oh look, there’s a piano, it must be ok to drop my crisp packet here”.nah, it was a biscuit wrapper 🙂
TBH had I found a piano up a mountain whilst exploring I would have initially kept quiet about it, and then attempted to “play” it (by striking and plucking the strings with other objects if it had no keyboard) whilst watching the reactions of other people below..
you could start a whole set of legends/conspiracy theories that way…
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