Adventure platform 57 Hours matches travellers with expert guides
Online platform 57 Hours connects wannabe explorers with certified guides who can teach snowkiting, rock climbing and backcountry skiing. Olivia Palamountain reports
57 Hours wants you to make the most of your weekends with its menu of guided adventures ready to book online.
The platform's mission is for people to max out their time while enabling its international community of local guides to share their itineraries, fill up their trips quickly, build their client base faster, and have successful and sustainable careers from day one.
The 57 Hours platform (named after the 57 hours between 3pm on Friday to midnight on Sunday) makes it easy to find adventures worth tackling and guides worth booking, with knowledge gathered from locals and first-hand experiences.
Featured guides all carry proper permitting and are certified and trained by the likes of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) or the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG).
The company values guides who are passionate about mentorship, are environmentally conscious, embrace ethical outdoor Leave No Trace methods and teach the skills needed to venture out without a guide in the future. Plus, 57 Hours sends its own reviewers on every experience to verify client testimonials.
Every adventure comes with recommended group size, duration, skill level and a note of seasonal availability, as well as a short introduction to the experience and a review.
Adventures currently online include a snowkiting course on the Hardangervidda Plateau in Norway, rock climbing in Lake Tahoe, mountain biking tours in Breckenridge in Colorado and sailing the Faroe Islands.
Epic Badges are awarded twice per year to highlight trips that have outstanding guides, well thought-out itineraries, a nod to sustainability and education, and inspiring outdoor environments.
Epic Level 1 is made up of taster sessions in mountain biking, backcountry skiing and kite-surfing, matched with beautiful scenery and suitable terrain for beginners.
Need some help deciding which trip is best for you? A portfolio of webinars is available to view for free on the site, for a taste of what to expect.
As travellers become ever-more worldly, the desire for adventure increases. In the new decade, we will see people seeking long-term immersion, wild weekenders, intrepid excursions with kids, extreme wellness, trips into space and submersible dives into the depths of the ocean.
Post pandemic, in particular, it's likely most of us will be craving an escape that offers something different from the norm – adventure tourism has been burgeoning for some time, offering the perfect antidote to months of claustrophobic lockdowns.