The Ladakh women’s ice hockey team is cooler than the ice they play on

Once, when the women turned up to play a match, they were told that as there were not enough women ice hockey players, those waiting for their turn on the rink should instead set up a men’s match—by doing a traditional dance.

With the taunts piling up, Jahan says, “We thought, ‘Let’s come together and form an organisation.’” That resulted in the formation of the Ladakh Women’s Ice Hockey Foundation in the winter of 2015.

The first initiative was meant to be a Learn to Skate camp for kids in Leh. But soon enough, they realised they would have to create their own skating rink—in DIY mode. Dividing themselves into shifts, starting from 6.30pm, they first poured water onto the frozen pond and smoothened it out to create the first layer. It took four hours for that to freeze, before the second shift could repeat the process, going on until about 3am as the temperature dropped to around minus 25 degrees Celsius, turning the fronds of hair sticking out from under their caps into icicles. They can laugh about it today “because we had each other”. During their first international event, they rented gear from the men, playing in oversized clothing, mismatched skates and refurbished cricket pads. But no more.

A player has her eye on the puck. Photographed by Mathieu Richer Mamousse