1. Concept. Soul of Steel is a unique blend of specialised skills including high altitude mountaineering, extreme cold survival, psychological endurance and physical toughness. The challenge opens the domain of niche military skills to an average youth who wishes to challenge his physical and psychological limits. Participants will be selected through a detailed screening and training model through traditional and modern standards. During the course of the programme, they will be trained to operate beyond the assumed limits of their body, to discover the limitless realms of their mind, consciousness and spirit. The project aims to train prospective athletes who wish to compete in this ‘first of its kind’ international challenge. To hone their ability in a series of smaller events leading up to the final mega event. “In this challenge, the toughest will compete, few will sustain, the best will win but everyone will evolve.”The entire Soul of Steel event will be filmed and presented as a series aimed to inspire a global audience.
2. Vision. While the SoS participants will get trained to face anything that the life can throw at them - be it the everyday stresses of the corporate jungle or survival out in the wilderness, the military veterans will get a sound platform to showcase their niche skills and monetise them in their second inning which at present is a great challenge but above all this activity will create a model through which the great tourism potential of the remote and desolate areas of Himalayan region and of the local hardy people will be harnessed to arrest the migration of the locals towards bigger cities from the small border villages.
3. Training Model. To equip them with specialist skills including mountaineering & survival skills, advanced medical skills, self-defence techniques, physical fitness, psychological resilience and endurance, to a standard that will stay with them through their life and form the backbone of a healthy, productive and evolved society, a Human Ability Biome will be created in High Altitude Area of Garhwal Himalayas. This biome, a cradle for expanded consciousness, will be the home of Soul of Steel. The training will take place in two stages at the Biomes established at Gamshali, Uttarakhand among other places as needed, leading up to the final international challenge at the Nanda Devi National Park. Each stage will build up the mind, body and skillsets of the participants.
The Human Ability Biome will act as a perennial hub for advanced skill training courses in land, air, and water adventure activities, life skill training, environmental conservation, forestry training programs, rehabilitation and research aimed at harnessing the potential of the human mind and body. The Biomes will provide an evolutionary ecosystem for both the able bodied and people with disabilities alike.
4. Desired Outcome of Soul of Steel, India. The Soul of Steel event will lay the foundation to galvanise the adventure sports potential of remote areas of India, mobilise international tourism, engage the youth in skill-based certification programs for gainful employment, promote active environmental conservation. It will stage Uttarakhand on the global tourism map for accessible tourism.
* ‘Soul of Steel, India – a beacon for human unity through the spirit of Adventure’*