The Summit returns for 2024

We’re proud to have hosted The Summit for the fourth year running, this time at Dolserau Hall – our charming country house in Southern Snowdonia. The mission of this annual event is to inspire new and diverse communities of people to actively engage with the outdoors and share ideas in the natural environment. 

Watch the video below.

With this ongoing partnership, HF Holidays is working hard to help make enjoying the great outdoors more inclusive for all. We look forward to welcoming attendees again next year and would like to give a huge thanks to Phil Young, founder of the media platform The Outsiders Project and co-founder of The Summit, for sharing his experience.

Check out Phil’s blog about The Summit 2024 below.

The thought of a 7:30 a.m. group cold water swim sits pretty far outside of my comfort zone, as does a 7 a.m. sunrise yoga session. Yet here I am, barefoot, with the sun sending morning shafts through ancient woodland and 100-foot cedars onto a dewy Welsh lawn. The sounds of songbirds harmonizing, and cattle lowing fill the air as I unroll a bright pink yoga mat.

I class myself as reasonably outdoorsy. I run marathons, cycle decent distances, and slide down mountainsides. However, the idea of a downward dog or sun salutation fills me with an irrational nervousness that probably needs attention.

I’m in Eryri, the Welsh region formerly known as Snowdonia, the largest national park in Wales, set in a landscape that looks like a Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings set. I'm here for the 4th annual Summit, an event specifically designed by Soraya Abdel-Hadi from the non-profit community All the Elements, and myself, Phil Young, founder of the media platform Outsider Project. Our goal is to share experiences, ideas, and understandings of what it means to be Black or Brown (collectively People of Colour or POC) in the outdoors. This may raise a couple of thoughts: the first perhaps is that it all sounds a bit ‘woke’ and the second, questioning why, as an organizer who isn’t too sure about yoga, I would schedule it.

To answer in order: Although POC come from communities whose heritage often hinges around outdoor living, 2nd or 3rd generation migrants often know little about the wonders of the British countryside, being raised mainly in urban spaces with scant understanding of what’s out there or how to navigate rural landscapes socially or physically. Our parents and grandparents had no experience of these magical places, so stories, childhood connections, or emotional attachments were rarely formed.

There are, however, several people up and down the country who have taken the opportunity, via circumstance or motivation, to learn about the outdoors through sport, exploration, or nature, and are keen to share it with their own communities. The Summit is a weekend where these community leaders, thinkers, writers, and sportspeople alike come together to further broaden and explore the multiple lenses through which we view the British landscape. The aim is to bring new narratives to the fore and engage people whose voices are seldom heard.

There are, however, several people up and down the country who have taken the opportunity, via circumstance or motivation, to learn about the outdoors through sport, exploration, or nature, and are keen to share it with their own communities. The Summit is a weekend where these community leaders, thinkers, writers, and sportspeople alike come together to further broaden and explore the multiple lenses through which we view the British landscape. The aim is to bring new narratives to the fore and engage people whose voices are seldom heard.

HF Holidays, along with Patagonia, have been partners of the Summit since its inception. What’s more, HF Holidays' recent B Corp certification demonstrates that their ambition for social and environmental responsibility is more than just a cute headline. They strive to promote cultural diversity and offer fully subsidised holidays to underprivileged families and those going through personal challenges. Their position that the countryside is a place for everyone to recharge, regardless of their background, has remained the same since the late Thomas Arthur Leonard OBE, first founded the company back in 1913.

The Summit has been held in wonderful HF Holidays venues across the UK, including the Lake District, Dorset, Whitby, and this year at the picture-perfect Dolserau Hall. This brings me to my second answer. All the venues have incredible access to trails for hiking, trail running, climbing, and cycling of the road and mountain variety. Some of them are close to large bodies of water, and while I will gladly admit I’m no fan of cold-water swimming, I take it on good advice that some people like it and that it can be good for you. I’m very much an ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ person, and as such, if early morning dips or, in this instance, a trikanasana yoga sequence in a lifting mist to the dawn song of a nuthatch is on the agenda, I’m all in.

In my working year, this weekend is always a standout. I’ve come to expect the beauty of the location and accommodations as a given, and always take a wry smile to myself when the delegates first arrive to see where we are staying, and where each of them will be given the opportunity to lead the group in their own area of expertise. It allows us to step outside of our daily lives and connect with the natural world in a way that is seldom possible in the city. Dolserau Hall is set in glorious foothills, with drama on the doorstep in the form of a 5km round-trip hike to the light-dappled Torrent Walk, which follows the river Clywedog as it carves its way through a moss-covered gorge. Further afield, we hiked up to Lake Lyn Cau, a glacial echo in the form of a magnificent crater, suitable for swimming. Those made of sturdier stuff than myself stripped off to plunge into the ancient pool, foregoing the shrieks I was expecting, to submerge themselves and get more intimate with the mountain. I’ve climbed and hiked several stunning routes in my time but was blown away by the scale and rawness of Cadair Idris just a short drive away. To be there with a group of people who have shared similar minoritized experiences growing up, some of whom were seeing views like this for the first time, is the stuff of poets. To be in these spaces as a POC without having to explain your presence to passers-by is a rare treat, and for the Summit delegates, it's one that will stay with us forever.

The weekend, although brief, offers time to celebrate and challenge the status quo. It stimulates ideas and creates partnerships that last long after the return train terminates back in Euston or Birmingham New Street. By putting on the Summit, we look to not only interrogate what rural spaces mean to minoritized groups but to understand how our roles as ambassadors and leaders within our communities can make these spaces feel more relevant. For me, this not only means experiencing new time on the land but also seeing it through new and wondrous eyes.