diff --git a/profiles/zsh/.zshrc b/profiles/zsh/.zshrc
index f21618e..dba7a42 100644
--- a/profiles/zsh/.zshrc
+++ b/profiles/zsh/.zshrc
@@ -117,6 +117,13 @@ phok() {
 
 # ---------- misc helpers ----------
 mkcd(){ mkdir -p "$1" && cd "$1"; }
+up(){
+  local n="${1:-1}"
+  [[ "$n" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || { echo "up: expects a number"; return 1; }
+  local path=""
+  for ((i=0; i<n; i++)); do path="../$path"; done
+  cd "$path" || return
+}
 extract(){
   case "$1" in
     *.tar.gz|*.tgz) tar xzf "$1";;