Piri || Adventure Leadership — Miri-Piri Leadership Retreat 2026

The Experience

Leadership isn't a title.
It's how you show up when it's hard.

Piri is where the intellectual work of Miri becomes embodied. Each element is grounded in Sikhi — a practice of carrying what matters most into the hardest moments.

Sikh boys hiking through the forest at dawn with Bani

Japji Sahib Hikes

Each morning begins before the sun fully rises — moving through the woods with Bani as the soundtrack, a pauri discussed at the trail's end.

Sikh boys on high ropes challenge course at Bradford Woods

Adventure Leadership

Two afternoons at Bradford Woods — four challenges across two days, each designed around a leadership theme and a Sikhi connection. Full details below.

Sikh boys playing soccer and games on Saturday evening

Night Games

Saturday night lights up with youth-organized night games — laser tag, pick-up soccer, basketball, chess, and races.

Kirtan Under the Stars

On Sunday, the retreat closes with a youth-led Kirtan under the stars — under an open sky, around a firepit.

Piri · Bradford Woods

The Challenges

Across each challenge, the throughline is the same: having fun and pushing yourself among a supportive sangat of veers — across ages. Facilitators from IU's Bradford Woods lead each session. What follows is the conversation we guide together.

Saturday Afternoon

Tango Towers

Trust & Communication Under Pressure Nirbhau

Supporting your veer on the wall. For those climbing — pushing through the moment of can I take another step? Post-climb reflection on putting Nirbhau into practice with supportive sangat. Facilitators guide discussion on what the equipment itself represents: the harness, the rope, the carabiner — symbols of mutual accountability.

Zipline

Resilience & Self-Efficacy Sangat & Chardi Kala

What does the trolley represent? What does the tether represent? Before you launch, those are abstract questions. Halfway across, they aren't. This session asks boys to sit with what carries them when they can't carry themselves — and to recognize that good Sangat functions exactly like that tether: present before you need it, holding when you do.

Sunday Afternoon

Archery

Goal Setting · Acts of Leadership Ardaas

Each boy writes a personal commitment — one Act of Leadership they'll carry beyond the retreat. That goal becomes the target. Through the session, they discover that leadership isn't only about hitting your own target. When your arrow lands on another's goal, or another's goal reshapes what yours could be, you're learning what Guru Sahib already knew: commitment made in community is the only kind that holds.

Cargo Net

Climb Your Climb Humility

It looks easier than it is. Contact is harder to build and maintain than it appears. Every move requires negotiating your body with the structure — and with everyone else on it. This is the intergenerational moment of the weekend: older boys coaching younger ones, younger boys showing older ones something they didn't expect. The group doesn't just witness your climb. It shapes it.

PiriAdventure Leadership