The passion with which the Sunnbüel Trail was created is evident right at the start of the route. The descent starts through a wooden archway with the words "Freeridetrail" carved into it. The first three berms reflect the character of the route: fast, flowing and, in principle, rideable for all reasonably experienced mountain bikers. More difficult sections and large jumps all have "chicken lines", which are originally marked with plastic chickens attached to signposts.

In the middle section, there are many large jumps, whereby the proportion of so-called "doubles" is striking. These are jumps where there is a hole between take-off and landing. For safety reasons, it is now recommended to avoid such jumps as they are not forgiving of mistakes. It is to be expected that the air rescue service will certainly have to pay a visit to the trail at one time or another.

The trail's baptism of fire is yet to come, however: the Sunnbüel Trail consists almost exclusively of humus soil. Heavy use in all weather conditions over the next few weeks will lead to the trail being severely damaged - an enormous amount of maintenance work is foreseeable in order to maintain the high level of today.

The transport system on the Sunnbüel Trail is impressive. The bikes are suspended on the underside of the gondola. This means that twelve mountain bikers can be brought up per ride without needing additional space in the cabin. One or two much larger mountain railroads could certainly take inspiration from this.

Conclusion: The Sunnbüel Trail is a wonderful downhill route that was built with a great deal of expertise and love. However, the endurance test is yet to come: concerns are justified as to whether the trail will still be as fun and smooth to ride at the end of the season.

Ticket prices
Day ticket: CHF 39.00
Half-day ticket: CHF 25.00
Single ticket with half-fare: CHF 16.50

Information
sunnbuel.ch
freeridetrail.ch