WHAT ANNIVERSARY ARE WE ABOUT TO CELEBRATE?

Mags’ question set us thinking. When we designed the drinking mugs in 2007 we started the list with a trip to Sjusjoen in 1991 but groups of Halden secondees had embarked on ski trips before that. Our thoughts led us to one foundation stone for the whole thing; the role of the Green Family in all this is absolutely central. Without Bob & Marit it’s possible that secondees would have taken the odd trip back to Norway but never in a coordinated fashion.

Our involvement with Bob & Marit goes back to late 1982 when I (RJW) was seconded to Halden as a replacement for Tony Turnbull. Tony had returned to the UK about a year earlier and the only remaining UK secondee when I arrived was Bob Cribb of the UKAEA. (During Tony’s stay there had been 4 secondees but whether any of them apart from Tony did any significant skiing is not known.) Bob Cribb returned to the UK in late 1982 but not before telling me that there was an English lad from Weymouth living near him. We later got to know this lad – Bob Green – through our daughters, Julie Green and Nicola White who met at a gym class – and instantly became close friends. When snow eventually arrived at Halden in February 1983 it was the Green family who introduced the White family to the delights of evening skiing around the lighted forest tracks of Halden. Later in February we were invited along to a weekend skiing with Bob and his work colleagues at a wonderful hotel perched near the top of a mountain outside Kongsberg – Knutehytta.

When we left Halden in 1985, Bob & Marit took our replacements, the Killeen family, under their wings and taught them to ski. I could go on but every UK secondee since 1982 has benefitted from knowing the Green family so you all have your own memories. This involvement has been recognised by the Halden Project who now treat the Greens as honorary life members.

So, the question remains, when was the first collective ski trip?

We went on a number of ski trips with the Green family in the period 1982-85 but one particular trip may have contained the seeds for what came later. In January 1985 another trip to Knutehytta was planned for the weekend of 25th-27th in which a number of secondees participated. Bob Green organised all this but the involved parties were; Rod, Cathy, Richard & Nicola White, Bob, Marit, Geoffrey, Julie & Gordon Green, Bart & Phyllis Conroy (GE-USA), Mitchell & Barbara Cunningham (Battelle North-West – USA), Yoji Minagawa & Paivvii, Marion Oakden (UKAEA) & crucially – Tony Turnbull who was an ex-secondee visiting the Project on business. Tony had been briefed about this trip so had deliberately extended his stay to participate. I believe this is the first occasion when a ski trip involved a visitor from the UK.

Another ‘first’ was recorded in February 1985 when we booked a cabin in Hemsedal and were joined by Rick Pendlebury (CEGB), his daughter Alison and two school friends, Emma Strain and Catherine Whittaker. This was a cold week (-30C) but it whetted Rick’s appetite and he has been a regular visitor ever since.

On our return to the UK, we visited Halden accompanied by Rick during the February half-terms in 1986 and 1987 during which we regularly skiied with the Greens and Killeens in the Halden area; this was during the time when snow was a reliable commodity in the Halden area. In 1988 we also skiied in Scandinavia accompanied by Richard’s girlfriend Bobbie but this time it was in Sweden. Later in December 1988, I visited the Halden Project for a look at the Scorpio Project in operation at Ringhals and ended the week skiing in Rjukan with Paul Tempest and family plus Faye Lyseng whose husband Jan Erik worked at the reactor. There was snow in Halden that week and I took advantage of it but Paul said he was busy that night and by the next day it had all melted. I don’t think it ever snowed again in Halden during Paul’s stay so he had to do all his skiing away from ‘base’.

Half-term of 1989 also saw the White family visit Halden along with most of the Killeen family (sans Trish, if I remember rightly) and Bob had organised a long weekend at Knutehytta. The participants were the White, Green, Tempest and Killeen families as secondees or ex-secondees, Faye & Jan Erik Lyseng, Carlo Vitanza & family, Chris & Astri Dowkes & family plus Trev Rowlands, an ex-GE secondee. Tony Turnbull turns up on the photographs during a meal at the Knudsens’ in Halden but I don’t think he made the trip to Knutehytta. There is another family on the photographs – maybe it’s Paul Tempest’s US friends, I can’t be sure.

1990 was the year of an EHPG at Bolkesjo and Cath & I attended along with Peter & Carol Wood who were in line to replace Paul Tempest in 1991. We did a fair bit of skiing and it satisfied us so we didn’t plan a half-term trip. Richard and Nicola were tied up with A- and O-level revision that year.

So, it’s on to 1991 which was the year that Paul Tempest was due to finish his secondment and Peter Wood due to start his. Paul booked couple of cabins at Sjusjoen and were joined by me and Cath plus the Greens and Pete & Sue Strain from Uley (parents of Emma from the February 1985 trip). Rick didn’t attend because Angela was having a hip replacement operation. This is the trip I recorded as the first on the mug of 2007 but, as you can see, we already had a rich history going by then so I was being a bit economical with the truth.

1992 saw the Whites stay in Uley. Cath was back at college and Nik was busy with A-levels – hence the gap on the mug.

1993 saw another handover in Halden. The Woods were leaving and Andy Donaldson was taking up a secondment so the same cabins were booked at Sjusjoen. This was the first occasion that we flew over and the flights cost around £210! New participants were Kevin Boyd, Paul Hutt and John Walmsley and I think Rick was back on skis.

From then on it mushroomed. Word got out at Berkeley and a lot of new people rushed to join for the planned 1994 trip to Orterstolen. The list further lengthened because Andy Donaldson, being the great socialite he is, put word round at Halden and the party comprised Czechs and Swiss participation. I should also say that just about the first ski trip Andy took was in the wilds of the Jotunheim, something most people reserve for when they’ve got some experience!

I won’t go on because you all know the rest but I think we can date the series from 1985 and it goes like this:-

1985 Knutehytta (plus Hemsedal)
1986 Halden
1987 Halden
1988 Rjukan
1989 Halden & Knutehytta
1990 (Bolkesjø)
1991 Sjusjøen
1992 --------
1993 Sjusjøen
1994 Ørterstølen
1995 Gålå
1996 Gålå
1997 Hovden
1998 Beitostølen
1999 Spidsbergseter
2000 Skeikampen
2001 Gålå
2002 Sjusjøen
2003 Skeikampen
2004 Beitostølen
2005 Gålå
2006 Filefjell
2007 Skeikampen
2008 Gålå
2009 Venabu

That, to my reckoning, makes 2010 the 25th anniversary of the accidental initiation of what, I think, has been a very good annual habit.


Rod & Cath
15 February 2009.