Royal Enfield announces Season 4 of Ice Hockey in the Himalayas, strengthens Grassroots Training Ecosystem

•  First-ever Goaltender Training Programme marks a key development milestone the 2026–27 season in Leh, led by international goaltending coach Matt Darlow
• Structured training for goalies, coaches, referees and players will build local sports capacity across Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
• Royal Enfield Ice Hockey League in Ladakh and the Spiti Cup in Himachal Pradesh will anchor the competitive calendar in January-February 2027

Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi, November 5, 2026: Royal Enfield announces the fourth season of its developmental Ice Hockey programme in the Himalayas, continuing its focus on building local expertise through comprehensive training pathways for players, coaches, and match officials.

The season opens with a first-ever dedicated Goaltender Training Programme, from November 9-13, 2026, at the Nawang Dorjay Stobdan (NDS) Stadium in Leh. The calendar expands with coach, referee and player training in Leh, Dehradun and Gurugram, led by internationally experienced instructors. Drawing talent from Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the initiative strengthens the grassroots expertise required to sustain winter sport in the region, ahead of the developmental Leagues – Royal Enfield Ice Hockey League (REIHL) and the Spiti Cup, in January-February 2027.

Building skills at every level
The season begins with a series of specialised training programmes designed to build local capacities and elevate competitive standards. For the first time, a dedicated Goaltender programme has been introduced, led by Matt Darlow, an international goaltending coach. Darlow will train the goalies from Ladakh and Spiti, adding specialist goaltending expertise to the training pathway.

Coach and player training will be conducted as part of the season’s structured development programmes to build long-term coaching capacity. Referee training will be conducted by Peter Gebei, an IIHF-certified ice hockey professional with over four decades of experience as a player, referee and officiating coach, returning for his second year.

Bidisha Dey, Executive Director, Eicher Group Foundation said, “Ice Hockey in the Himalayas belongs to the communities who play it, and our role is to help them build the capabilities to sustain it on their own terms. In Season 4, our goal is to strengthen the local expertise that underpins the sport, equipping local players, coaches, and officials with specialised, world-class skills. Each coach and player trained this season takes us a step closer to a fully community-owned sport, laying the foundational ground for India’s future on the global winter stage.”

The season’s grassroots Learn to Play training will be held from December, 2026 to February, 2027, followed by India’s highest-altitude tournaments: the Royal Enfield Ice Hockey League (REIHL) in Leh and the Spiti Cup in Kaza.

REIHL, organised in partnership with the UT Administration of Ladakh and the Ice Hockey Association of Ladakh, and the Spiti Cup, organised alongside the Ice Hockey Association of Lahaul-Spiti (IHALS), are both entering their fourth year of partnership with Royal Enfield. While REIHL has grown into a key platform for emerging talent through competitive winter sport in the region, the Spiti Cup anchors grassroots engagement across remote villages such as Losar, Lalung, Keylong, Lahaul and Sagnam.

Royal Enfield Social Mission’s engagement with the Himalayan communities extends beyond the rink. The third edition of Journeying Across the Himalayas, taking place from December 3–9, 2026, at Travancore Palace, New Delhi, is a community-driven festival celebrating stories of and from the Himalayas. The festival will feature an ice hockey experience, including a locker-room setup, offering visitors an opportunity to engage with the sport and gain a deeper understanding of its significance in the lives of Himalayan communities.

Season 3 highlights
The 2026 edition of the Royal Enfield Ice Hockey League and the Spiti Cup featured men’s, women’s competitions, while the Spiti Cup also featured an Under-18 Boys category. Teams came from Leh, Nubra, Changthang, Sham, Kharu, Drass, Kargil, Shakar Chiktan and Zanskar regions in Ladakh, and from Lahaul and the Center, Pin, Sham and Tod zones of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. REIHL featured 11 men’s and five women’s teams, with Kharu fielding teams for the first time, while Lahaul made its debut in the Spiti Cup’s Senior Men’s category. Humas Warriors and Sham Eagles won the REIHL men’s and women’s titles, respectively. In the Spiti Cup, Center Zone claimed both the men’s and women’s titles, while Sham Zone won the Under-18 title.

About Royal Enfield Social Mission
About 75 years ago, the Himalayas became Royal Enfield’s spiritual home. Royal Enfield Social Mission is catalysing an ecosystem of collective action to meet its long-term vision of partnering with 100 Himalayan communities by 2030 towards building climate resilience.

The Royal Enfield Social Mission projects and initiatives include ‘The Himalayan Knot’ – a textile conservation project, bringing together pastoral communities, artisans and designers for wider market access; ‘The Himalayan Hub’ – a collective learning center for Climate Resilience; a network of community-run ‘Green Pit Stops’, embodying responsible travel; ‘The Great Himalayan Exploration’ in partnership with UNESCO to document Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH); the Royal Enfield ‘Ice Hockey League’ promoting rural sports and winter tourism; conserving biodiversity and wildlife through the Keystone Species project; and ‘Helmets for India’ – a road safety initiative.

Through the Social Mission, Royal Enfield is also encouraging and inspiring one million riders to explore sustainably and ‘Leave every place better’.

In addition to the Social Mission, Royal Enfield also works with local communities near its manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu, focusing on areas such as education, livelihood, sanitation, healthcare etc. Two multi-decade partnerships with Bodh Shiksha Samiti in Rajasthan and Dr. Shroff Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi continue to be supported as legacy projects.

Royal Enfield Social Mission and other CSR initiatives are implemented by Eicher Group Foundation, a section 8 company incorporated in 2015 under the Companies Act of 2013.