When Vishwaraj Jadeja first saw the frozen Tso Moriri in Ladakh earlier this year, he was breathless. Not just because of how the lake — a sheet of ice — lay unfolded in front of him as the Himalayas stood witness, but also because he had ridden 30 kilometres on a bicycle to get there. The ice skater had challenged himself to skate on seven of India’s highest frozen lakes, and Tso Moriri was the first of them.
Sweating it out in the summers of Chennai, it is hard to believe Vishwaraj when he says, “Ice skating is a hidden gem in India.” But his belief is steadfast: “For locals in Ladakh, ice skating is the most natural thing. As a professional, skating there is one of the milestones in my life.”
Most ice skaters from India start out as roller skaters, he says, and so did he. He currently trains as a long-distance ice speed skater for the most part of the year in Netherlands. Having represented India in over 200 races, including the 2017 Asian Games, he holds the record for being the fastest Indian in 3K, 5K, and 10K long-distance ice speed skating.
Training hard
The skater now aims at doing more expeditions, spurred on by the challenges the outdoors pose to the body, mind and spirit. “Inside a stadium, everything is controlled, and your race is against time. But in expeditions, it’s you versus the elements of Nature,” he says.
At 4522 metres above sea level, Tso Moriri is the largest high-altitude lake in the Trans-Himalayan region. The main challenge was of course, exercising with low levels of oxygen, and the fact that it was bone-chillingly cold: minus 40 degree Celsius. “We had to clear the snow so that we could build a track on the lake,” he recalls, adding, “The ice may be softer, and at certain points on the lake, it may break if you are not careful.”
He and his team stayed in Ladakh for 10 days, first acclimatising in the city of Leh, and then at huts in a village closer to the lake. The chilly temperature is aggravated by harsh winds. If it is cloudy, the atmosphere turns colder, but direct sun is no less challenging, as it is closer to you and burns more glaringly. “In a year, you can’t do more than one or two expeditions, that’s the kind of toll it takes,” he says.
On the plus side — and this is why he continues to drive himself hard — his body has become used to adapting. “Over the years, I have broken my body many times,” he laughs. The crash he was most affected by, however, happened last year. Despite dislocating his ribs and being unable to walk for almost a month, what hurt more was that it happened two weeks ahead of the qualifications of the Winter Olympics — PyeongChang 2018. “In that one crash, I lost everything I had been training for.”
The reward
The health benefits of ice skating are enough to counterbalance the risks. “As with any sport, it helps improve hand-eye coordination, balance, concentration, and strengthens your joints. Children that play sports are more likely to use different parts of their brain and be compassionate towards their teammates,” he says.
Vishwaraj has been playing all kinds of sports, from roller skating to hockey and soccer since he was a child. “That’s why ice skating came easier to me,” he says. To anybody who wants to follow in his footsteps, he advises, “First be fit. You should be cycling 10,000 kilometres a year to reach just basic levels of fitness.”
Injuries, though a part of the sport, take lesser and lesser time to recover from. “The human body is an amazing thing, it learns quickly how to respond to the environment you put it in. Our bodies were made to be used, if we don’t, they will rot away.”
