Stunning Photos of Ice Hockey in the Himalayas

After spending a few months coaching in Serbia, Jan Andersen embarked on an adventure among Buddhist monasteries, Muslim villages, and semi-nomadic shepherds.

In January 2016, Jan Andersen, a former coach of several North American hockey teams, decided to leave the glamorous ice arenas behind and seek a new adventure on one of the world’s most remote natural ice fields.

Located at an average altitude of over 4,500 meters, east of India’s rarely inhabited Ladakh region, lies the Tibetan Plateau, west of the disputed border with China. For three months each year, when temperatures drop below -20 degrees and schools close, natural ponds and lakes transform into unique ice skating rinks. These rinks become gathering places for local children and young people to play and interact, alleviating the burden of schoolwork and household chores, fostering confidence, and strengthening community bonds.

During the previous season, while coaching a team in Serbia through the organization “Hockey Without Borders,” Jan learned about HELP Inc., a U.S. nonprofit that collaborates with minority groups in the Western Himalayas. Every year, former hockey players in Canada and the U.S. collect new and used equipment and call on fellow players and coaches worldwide to volunteer. They teach hockey to the region’s youth, who previously could only enjoy the sport in the capital, Leh.

Today, this entirely grassroots and arguably the world’s most challenging hockey movement has begun to spread across the district boundaries and throughout the country. It is here, among ancient Buddhist monasteries, Muslim villages, and semi-nomadic yak herders, that Jan spent several months as a traveling coach, spreading the love of sports in its most sincere form with the people of Ladakh.

Before the first training, village children learn how to tie their skates.