Backcountry.com launched an outdoor adventure marketplace Wednesday to connect customers with professional outdoor guides.
The site, Detour by Backcountry.com, enables users to quickly and easily hire local, professional guides across the United States for skiing, climbing, mountain biking, hiking, fly fishing and more.
Users can browse more than 100 outdoor adventures and book their trips through the site.
“Our passion at Backcountry is to be at the center of our customers’ outdoor lives by providing savvy gear advice and helping enthusiasts get to the goods,” said Jill Layfield, CEO at Backcountry.com. “Detour sets our brand apart by offering tailored, locally-guided excursions that are unique and unrivaled. It provides a sense of exploration in an entirely new format, with skilled and knowledgeable guides leading guests to lesser-known powder stashes, crags, singletrack and off-the-beaten-path hiking destinations around the country.”
Detour currently offers trips in Utah, Colorado and the Northeast and plans to add more guides and outfitters on a weekly basis. Going forward, Detour will expand into more states including California in the near term-with Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to follow.
The new Detour site outlines a trip description, itinerary, gear list, guide bio and trip images.
REI has partnered with local guides to sell adventure travel through REI Adventures for more than 25 years, and TheClymb.com began selling adventure travel on its site in 2012. Backwoods, an Austin, Texas based retailer with store across the Midwest sells and leads its own trips, while Eastern Mountain Sports operates one of the oldest climbing schools in the nation. In Europe many of the largest outdoor specialty retailers are also major adventure travel operations.
