Business in Off-Season

Extreme cold limits the tourism season in Leh from May to September. On purpose we are focusing on putting this event together during the off-season, just before the season starts and adding majorly to the local business. It has been really encouraging how the administration and local associations have welcomed our idea.

Promoting Local Talent

Running

La Ultra would be a non-starter without local crew, whether as part of core-team, team crews, drivers, hotels & guesthouses. Now we want to showcase to the world how good they are. We are pretty sure that in next few years, this initiative will lead to medals being won by local sports people at national level and also bringing laurels to the country at international events.

We’ve had local participation in the race in the form of Ladakh Scouts participating as part of the Indian Army team. They excelled at 111 km category shaving of 2-3 hours, not minutes from previous records. Now it’s time to do a lot more.

During Covid pandemic the whole world had suffered, so did Leh, but an interesting fact is that mortality rate has been a lot lesser in the both the waves. Is that something to do with being highlanders, who besides having larger lung capacity, even the genetic mutation helps with adapting to the high altitude? Is that mutation the game changer?

High altitude training has been recognised to help endurance athletes and others too, even though the adaptation is only temporary. We’ll promote and create a platform for local school students and youth to pick up running a lot more. Idea is to make it an inclusive program rather than limiting it to only good runners. They will be made aware of athletic and allied sports careers, besides benefits in professional life and of course health.

Archery

Archery is in the blood of all the Ladakhis. We’ve often seen locals practising archery and being very good. Yet you don’t see Ladakhis representing the country. We want to change that by collaborating with local archery organisations and enthusiasts.

Polo

We’ve been organising La Ultra since 2010 but somehow our participants haven’t seen this beautiful game. That’s when we spend two to three weeks each year in Leh. Same would apply to most tourists who only visit Ladakh to tick boxes and selfies for Instagram, missing out on the amazing experience Ladakh has to offer.

Polo in Ladakh is a part of many festivals like Losar (Buddhist New Year) and Nowruz (Muslim New Year). It is more than a sport, it’s an integral part of the culture of the land.

Our dream is together revive and popularise these beautiful sports amongst the local youth while introducing them to the world.

Zero Carbon FootPrint initiative

Ladakh being our second home since 2010, we recognise some ground realities. Tourism is the major source of livelihood, but the extreme Ladakhi conditions limits the season to only five months, ranging from May to maximum September end. We plan to add to local businesses by organising the Fest during the off-season, extending the season.
Growing tourism also creates a havoc for the delicate local environment. We are targeting a thousand participants for our event. At an average people end up consuming three litres of water in a day. For acclimatisation we’ll ask them to be in Leh for about ten days. That adds up to thirty thousand water bottles waste being created by just one event. We’ll be making our event prohibiting single use plastic. We’ll give out sippers to all the participants and provide filtered water to them for the duration of their stay. This initiative of ours will make us role models for Ladakh tourism and solve a major problem.
In addition to this we’ll go paper free too by going fully digital and also race numbers printed on cloth. We want to be a zero carbon footprint event and want to lead the way for others too.

Giving Back