The riders kick off the newly shaped jump line at the foot of the Uetliberg with a train run. Just a few meters apart, they fly over the razor-sharp jumps, which have been re-shaped and modified in one spot. Leading the pack is Lucas Huppert, the world-class slopestyle rider from the canton of Zurich. He cruises effortlessly through the forest on his e-bike. “I always come here on my trail bike to do a few laps with my buddies.” These days, he trains at his private facility in Schaffhausen. That’s why he rarely brings his dirt bike to Zurich anymore. “But the Jumpline is top-notch,” he insists.

The Jumpline is, in a sense, the link between the Höckler Trail, which ends less than a hundred meters from the starting hill, and the Allmend Trail for kids and beginners, which runs below it, using the remaining elevation drop down into Zurich’s Allmend, where you can then burn off your last bit of energy on the pump track. Between the red freeride trail and the blue skills trail, the black Jumpline with its massive kickers presents a special challenge.

 

 

 

 

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It opened five years ago, almost at the same time as the other two courses. The jump line naturally attracts a much smaller crowd. Anyone who wants to make it all the way to the landing must be able to handle a lot of airtime. The Züritrails association, which operates the facility, has recorded an average of 7,000 runs per month in recent years. When the jumps went back into operation two weeks ago following the reshape, there were 600 to 1,000 runs per weekday and 2,000 to 3,000 on weekends, explains Flurin Dörig, co-president of the Zurich-based club. No one knows exactly how many people are riding all these thousands of laps. On the official opening day alone, the counter registered over 3,000 rides. In any case, the course is definitely being used. The good news for riders who aren’t quite as experienced: All the jumps are rideable.

Hoping for a red and a blue jump line

Before the reshape, Züritrails asked the community how the course could be improved. “It turned out that some people would like simpler, less massive jumps, while others wanted them to be at least as big as they were,” explains Flurin Dörig. “If it were up to us, we would have opened a red and a blue jump line next to the black one at the same time as the reshape.” The plans are in place, but approval is still pending—which must be granted by both the city and the canton of Zurich. “We’re working on it,” says Dörig optimistically.

At least Züritrails was allowed to build one new trail: the uphill trail back to the start. Originally, the forest road—which curves back to the starting point—was intended for this purpose. However, most users of the jump line pushed their bikes up the slope right next to it. A beaten path formed there, which also crossed the dirt jumpers’ track twice. That’s now a thing of the past. On the new uphill trail, riders always trudge up on the same side of the jumps and can watch their peers perform whips and one-footers.