Wild camping at the Ammertepass: one step changes the rule
This is a flat, high, trackless-feeling pass with a marked path over it, and the law here is unusually kind: two communes, two camping regulations, and both of them contain a route to a lawful night. The catch is that the boundary runs 0.7 metres from the saddle, and the two routes are not the same length.
What do these mean?
Illegal A specific rule bans it, usually with a fine, and it can be enforced. Sleep somewhere else.
Not allowed No real place to camp here. A gated site, a developed area, or nowhere sensible to lie down, even if no fine is attached.
It depends You can sleep here, but there's a condition first: ask the landowner, book a spot, stay inside a set zone, or use a bivvy instead of a tent. The report says which.
Tolerated No rule clearly allows or bans it, but a single night is accepted in practice and nobody enforces against it. Normal for high bivouacs above the treeline.
Legal Camping one night is fine here. Either a rule allows it, or we checked every law and found nothing against it. Still: pitch late, leave early, no trace.
Two communes meet within a metre of the saddle
Get this right first, because it decides everything else. The gazetteer point for the pass is LV95 2'606'983.8 / 1'142'076.6 at 2'443.1 m, and the current-year municipal boundary layer puts it in Lenk. Cast rays out from it on twelve bearings and the picture is stark: on eight of them the Adelboden boundary is 1 m away, and only two bearings, south-east and east-south-east, stay in Lenk for 376 m and 801 m. Bisected, the nearest point of Adelboden is 0.7 m from the pin.1
So this is not a spot where you can look up "the commune" once. The saddle is Lenk. Almost everything you would walk to is Adelboden.
The other line 4 metres away is not a ban
The federal landscape inventory object "Engstligenalp und Entschligefäll", BLN 1513, does not cover the pass: its nearest boundary runs 4 m away. Step 141 to 206 m east-north-east onto the flat shelf and you are inside it. That matters for completeness and not for your night: the BLN binds federal and cantonal authorities in planning decisions and carries no penalty for a person with a rucksack.2
Everything else federal is genuinely empty at the pass: no game reserve, no bog, no mire landscape, no floodplain, no dry meadow, no park of national importance, no forest reserve. The invalid-layer control errors rather than answering empty, so those zeros are real. The nearest wildlife rest zone, "Adelboden Fitzer", is 608 m away, and it is a winter object: access is barred from 20 December to 30 April, with crossing on the marked route allowed even then.2
And Bern has no cantonal camping ban. The Naturschutzgesetz and the Naturschutzverordnung contain no camping term at all. The one Bernese instrument that does forbid free camping and bivouacking outright is the wildlife protection ordinance, and only for certain named rest zones, none of which is here.67
Worth naming, because it is 5.4 km west and gets confused with this: the cantonal nature reserve Gelten-Iffigen, whose 1969 decree bans camping and "das Aufschlagen von Zelten oder andern Unterständen" and which is why the Iffigsee is a hard no, has its nearest edge 5'352 m from this pass. It does not reach here.5
Two camping regulations, two different consents
Neither commune bans camping outright, and both wrote the exception into the same kind of article. The difference is who has to say yes.
Lenk: the landowner and the commune
Lenk has both a police regulation and a camping regulation, and both are live.
The Gemeindepolizeireglement has an article headed "Campingverbot":
"Auf öffentlichem Grund ist das Übernachten in Fahrzeugen und Zelten (Campieren) ausserhalb der speziell dafür vorgesehenen Flächen verboten."Gemeindepolizeireglement der Gemeinde Lenk, art. 21 para. 1. Para. 2: "Die Gemeindepolizei kann in begründeten Fällen Ausnahmen bewilligen." Art. 50 para. 1 sets the penalty: a fine up to 5'000 francs, with a warning instead in light cases.
That is a rule about public ground, and it comes with an express exception route: the communal police may allow one in justified cases.3
The Campingreglement of 1 November 1969, approved by the cantonal government that December, is the one that covers the rest of the territory. Its art. 2 defines camping as temporarily staying "in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Wohnschiffen oder ähnlichen beweglichen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen", and adds that merely pitching a tent counts. Then art. 6:
"Das vereinzelte gelegentliche Campieren abseits von bewilligten Campingplätzen ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers und der Gemeindebehörde gestattet, wobei insbesondere die hygienischen Einrichtungen zu genügen haben. Der Gemeinderat setzt die Dauer des Campierens fest."Reglement über das Campingwesen der Gemeinde Lenk of 1 November 1969, art. 6, approved by decision of the cantonal government no. 8417 of 16 December 1969. Art. 25 sets the penalty at a fine up to 200 francs.
Read that carefully, because it is good news with a condition. "Vereinzelt gelegentlich" is exactly a single night. It is expressly permitted. It needs two consents: the landowner's and the commune's.3
Adelboden: the landowner alone
Adelboden's Ortspolizeireglement, in the version of 1 January 2021, has the same public-ground rule in art. 32: on public ground, camping is permitted only at places designated by the local police authority. And unlike Lenk, Adelboden prices it: the fee and fine ordinance to that regulation tariffs "Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund" at 200 francs for a first offence and 400 francs on a repeat within two years. That is the only number in this whole file.4
Its Campingreglement then handles everything that is not a public road or square:
"Das Campieren auf öffentlichen Strassen und Plätzen ist verboten. Die vereinzelte, gelegentliche Aufstellung von Zelten ohne Entgelt auf anderen Grundstücken ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers gestattet."Campingreglement der Gemischten Gemeinde Adelboden, art. 4. The same article adds that the landowner must then see to the necessary hygiene facilities, and that where there is a justified risk of materially impairing the protected landscape or townscape, the commune may limit camping on such land in time or prohibit it entirely.
One consent. No communal signature required, no fee, no form. The commune keeps a reserve power to restrict or forbid camping on such land where the landscape would be materially impaired, which on a BLN shelf is worth knowing about, but the default route is a conversation with whoever owns the alp.4
And the zoning on the Adelboden side does not add a ban
The candidate pitches sit inside Adelboden's Landschaftsschutzgebiet I Bunder / Lohner. Its article in the building regulation, in force since the end of 2023, is about preserving the landscape's diversity and character and continuing traditional use; what it prohibits are fills and deposits, interference with the water regime and the removal of characteristic landscape elements. There is no camping clause in it. The nearest cantonal nature reserves are Engstligenalp at 1'322 m and Engstligenfälle at 2'338 m.5
How to actually do it
The ground is the easy part here, which is rare. The pass reads 0.7 degrees at 2'443.1 m, and it is not a rounding artefact: over a 600 by 600 metre box the median slope is 32 degrees, so the flat really is the pass shelf. There is more of it a short walk east-north-east, 0.7 degrees at 2'402.7 m at 190 m, 1.3 degrees at 2'452.0 m at 206 m, 2.2 degrees at 2'397.6 m at 202 m. All of those are Adelboden.81
Around you: the nearest registered building is 418 m away, a non-residential alp building at Ammerte on the Adelboden side, and the Engstligenalp is 1'496 m off. There is no road. The Ammertegletscher is 809 m away. A marked path crosses the pass, which is how you get here and also why you should pitch off it rather than on it.8
Which yes to go and get
Ask Adelboden's side. One consent instead of two, the flat ground is over there anyway, and the person to ask is whoever works the alp at Ammerte, the nearest building. If you cannot reach an owner, the communal administration is the place to start; Adelboden's own regulation names the Ortspolizeibehörde for designated places on public ground and the landowner for everything else.4
If you specifically want the saddle itself, that is Lenk, and Lenk wants two yeses. In practice that means one call to the communal administration and one to the landowner, and the honest advice is to do it in that order, because the commune can usually tell you who the owner is.3
The bivouac wording, and how far it goes
Both regulations define camping around a tent. Lenk's art. 2 says "in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Wohnschiffen oder ähnlichen ... Einrichtungen"; its police article says "Übernachten in Fahrzeugen und Zelten"; Adelboden's art. 2 says "in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen ... Einrichtungen" and its art. 4 speaks specifically of "die Aufstellung von Zelten".
So a tentless bivouac, a mat and a bag under the sky, is arguably outside all four of those wordings. Arguably is the operative word: it is a reading of the text, not a permission anyone has given, and the contrast is instructive. The protection decree 5.4 km west closes exactly that gap by writing "Zelten oder andern Unterständen". These two communes did not, and a commune can amend a regulation. If you want certainty, ask; if you want to keep the argument, sleep without a tent, out of sight of the path, and leave nothing.34
Season, water and the legal beds
This is a summer answer. At 2'443 m the pass carries snow well into the year, the wildlife rest zone 608 m away is closed from 20 December to 30 April, and the route over it is graded a demanding mountain hike. Water is snowmelt and the Ammertebach below; treat it and wash away from it. The nearest legal beds are the Berghaus Engstligenalp, about 1.5 km away and reachable by cable car from Adelboden, and the campsites down in Lenk. The pass is on the classic crossing from the Simmenfälle to Adelboden and on the multi-day traverse towards the Chindbettipass, so if you are walking it in a day you may not need a night up here at all.9
General rules for wild camping
You are on open alp at 2'443 m in two communes that both left a door open. The fastest way to close it is to behave as though it were nobody's ground:
- No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
- Pitch late, strike early. Set up towards evening, gone again early. A bivouac is one night, not a base camp.
- Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up you carry down, organic scraps and toilet paper included.
- At least 50 metres from any water for the big business, so you do not foul what people and livestock drink.
- Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the alp staff's word goes.
Disclaimer
Everything here is a journalistic assessment as of September 2026, from the sources linked below, and it is not legal advice.
It depends is the accurate verdict: both communal camping regulations permit an occasional tent, and both make it conditional on consent. Nobody has published a designated place at this pass, so the consent route is the only route.
The commune boundary at this pass is settled to within a metre from the official boundary layer, which is more precision than any regulation needs but less than a survey. If you are pitching within a few metres of the saddle, assume the stricter of the two regimes and ask Lenk.
The pass itself is unsurveyed ground with no land-register parcel, so the cadastre answer was assembled by testing the point against the full restriction polygons of the neighbouring parcels in Adelboden and Lenk rather than by reading one extract.
Frequently asked questions
Is wild camping allowed at the Ammertepass?
Which commune am I in?
What is the fine if I get it wrong?
Does the Iffigsee ban apply here?
Is a bivouac without a tent treated differently?
Leon Helg
Swiss filmmaker and software developer. Spends his free time in the Swiss Alps and maps his favourite spots for Hikebeast. Posts as @leon.helg on Instagram and TikTok.
Sources
- Commune boundary and pass identity, queried 3 September 2026. The federal gazetteer has no entry "Ammertenpass"; the official swissnames3d feature is "Pass Ammertepass (BE) - Lenk" at WGS84 46.43000 / 7.52950, LV95 2'606'983.8 / 1'142'076.6, terrain surface 2'443.1 m via the federal height service. The municipal boundary layer, filtered to the current year, returns Lenk at the point. Ray casting on twelve bearings and bisecting to 0.1 m finds the Adelboden boundary at 1 m on eight bearings, at 4 m on one, and at 376 m and 801 m on the two south-easterly ones; the nearest point of Adelboden is 0.7 m from the pass point. Named features within 300 m: Ammertetäli 2 m, Ammertegrat 20 m, Ammerteschafberg 139 m, Entschligenalp 282 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Official federal geodata, queried 3 September 2026 at the pass. Identify returns empty results for federal game reserves, raised bogs, fens, mire landscapes, floodplains, dry grasslands and pastures, amphibian spawning sites, Ramsar sites, Emerald sites, parks of national importance, biosphere reserves, world natural heritage and forest reserves. The landscape inventory object "Engstligenalp und Entschligefäll", BLN 1513, does not cover the point and its nearest boundary runs 4 m away; the candidate pitches 141 to 206 m east-north-east are inside it. The nearest wildlife rest zone is "Adelboden Fitzer (Nr. 4002.00)" at 608 m, recorded as legally binding with provision R40, "Zutrittsverbot, durchqueren auf eingezeichneter Route gestattet", protection period 20 December to 30 April, based on the communal building regulation and resolved in 2023; then "Adelboden Hüendersädel (Nr. 4004.00)" at 2'199 m and the recommended zone "Lenk W4 Metsch/I de Louene/Am Bummere (Nr. 2204.00)" at 1'788 m. Further objects: floodplain Engstligenalp 1'322 m, fen Engstligenalp 1'862 m, dry meadow Eggezun 1'867 m. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which returns HTTP 400 while all real layers return HTTP 200, and a positive control point inside federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental correctly returns that polygon. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Gemeinde Lenk, two acts read in full on 3 September 2026. Gemeindepolizeireglement, art. 21 "Campingverbot": "Auf öffentlichem Grund ist das Übernachten in Fahrzeugen und Zelten (Campieren) ausserhalb der speziell dafür vorgesehenen Flächen verboten"; para. 2 "Die Gemeindepolizei kann in begründeten Fällen Ausnahmen bewilligen"; para. 3 allows the permit to be made conditional on security for any clean-up. Art. 50 para. 1: "Wer gegen Bestimmungen dieses Reglements oder eine gestützt darauf erlassene Allgemeinverfügung verstösst, wird mit Busse bis zu 5000 Franken bestraft", para. 2 allows a warning instead in light cases. Reglement über das Campingwesen der Gemeinde Lenk of 1 November 1969, published as a scan and read by optical recognition: art. 1 states the purpose of steering camping on communal ground into orderly channels; art. 2 defines "Campieren" as "das vorübergehende Verweilen in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Wohnschiffen oder ähnlichen beweglichen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen" and adds that merely pitching a tent or caravan falls under the term; art. 6 permits "das vereinzelte gelegentliche Campieren abseits von bewilligten Campingplätzen ... nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers und der Gemeindebehörde"; art. 25 sets a fine up to 200 francs. The reglement was approved by decision of the cantonal government no. 8417 of 16 December 1969. The whole published collection of 76 Lenk acts was scanned for camping terms with per-file control counts. lenkgemeinde.ch. ↩
- Gemeinde Adelboden, three acts read in full on 3 September 2026. Ortspolizeireglement in the version revised to 1 January 2021, art. 32 para. 1: "Auf öffentlichem Grund ist das Campieren nur an den von der Ortspolizeibehörde bezeichneten Stellen gestattet. Das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen ist gebührenpflichtig"; para. 3 describes a campsite permit as entitling the holder to make land available for "vorübergehendes Wohnen in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen Einrichtungen"; para. 4 refers operations to the camping regulation. Gebühren- und Bussenverordnung zum Ortspolizeireglement, item 4 "Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund", offence art. 32 Ortspolizeireglement and Campingreglement: first breach 200 francs, repeat within two years 400 francs. Campingreglement der Gemischten Gemeinde Adelboden, art. 1 purpose "das Campieren auf dem Gemeindegebiet zu regeln", art. 2 definition "das vorübergehende Verweilen in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen beweglichen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen", art. 4: "Das Campieren auf öffentlichen Strassen und Plätzen ist verboten. Die vereinzelte, gelegentliche Aufstellung von Zelten ohne Entgelt auf anderen Grundstücken ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers gestattet", with the landowner then responsible for hygiene facilities and the commune empowered to limit or prohibit camping on such land where the protected landscape or townscape would be materially impaired. 3715.ch. ↩
- Zoning and cadastre. Baureglement der Gemeinde Adelboden in the version in force from 31 December 2023, art. 18 "Landschaftsschutzgebiet I Bunder / Lohner": the area serves the preservation of the landscape in its particular diversity, naturalness, character and beauty and the protection of natural living conditions for plants and animals; traditional use is to be continued; para. 4 prohibits all measures contrary to the protection purpose, "wie Auffüllungen und Ablagerungen, Eingriffe in Wasserhaushalte und das Entfernen von landschaftsprägenden, wertvollen und typischen Elementen". The regulation contains no camping prohibition; its camping provisions are zoning for the licensed sites and a reference to the communal camping regulation. Cadastre of public-law restrictions for canton Bern: the pass itself returns no parcel, so the point was tested against the full restriction geometry of the neighbouring parcels, EGRID CH453646053560, parcel 41 in Adelboden, 12'789'454 m², 88 restrictions, and EGRID CH858346223559, parcel 871 in Lenk. Covering the pass point: agricultural zone, "BLN-Gebiet Nr. 1513 Engstligenfälle und Engstligenalp", "Landschaftsschutzgebiet Bunder Lohner", Gewässerschutzbereich Au and a hazard indication. Not covering it: cantonal nature reserve Engstligenalp no. 244 at 1'322 m, Engstligenfälle no. 21 at 2'338 m, communal protected area Groppetli at 1'625 m, and the cantonal nature reserve Gelten-Iffigen no. 35 at 5'352 m. 3715.ch. ↩
- Cantonal law of Bern, read on 3 September 2026 from the official register, with the statute text taken from the published PDF including annexes rather than from the register's metadata. Naturschutzgesetz BSG 426.11 and Naturschutzverordnung BSG 426.111: no occurrence of any camping, tenting, bivouac or overnighting term, so canton Bern has no general camping prohibition. Jagd- und Wildtierschutzgesetz BSG 922.11: likewise silent. Gesetz betreffend die Einführung des Bundesgesetzes über die Ordnungsbussen BSG 324.1: silent. belex.sites.be.ch. ↩
- Verordnung über den Wildtierschutz des Kantons Bern, BSG 922.63, read in full including annex 2 with the individual area sheets. Several sheets in category F carry the sentence "Freies/wildes Campieren und Biwakieren sind verboten", which is the one Bernese instrument that forbids a tentless bivouac in as many words. None of the sheets covering this pass area does so: the nearest binding wildlife rest zone to the Ammertepass is 608 m away, is based on the communal building regulation of Adelboden rather than on this ordinance, and bars access only between 20 December and 30 April. belex.sites.be.ch. ↩
- Terrain and surroundings, queried 3 September 2026 through the federal elevation profile service on the 2 metre terrain model and the federal register of buildings and dwellings. The pass reads 0.7 degrees at 2'443.1 m. A 25 metre grid over a 600 by 600 metre box returns elevations from 2'144.9 to 2'538.3 m with a median slope of 32.0 degrees; further flat candidates are 0.7 degrees at 2'402.7 m 190 m east-north-east, 1.3 degrees at 2'452.0 m at 206 m, 2.2 degrees at 2'397.6 m at 202 m and 3.1 degrees at 2'402.7 m at 141 m, all of them in Adelboden and all but the first inside BLN 1513. Nearest registered building 418 m, an agricultural building at Ammerte, Adelboden; then Ammertenweg 84a in Lenk at 1'227 m and Engstligenalp at 1'496 m. Nearest marked hiking path segment 3 m, so the pass lies on the route. Ammertegletscher 809 m, Strubelgletscher 1'028 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Route context from the regional tourism organisation for Adelboden and Lenk: the pass carries the signposted crossing from the Simmenfälle to Adelboden via the Ammertenpass, about 13.5 km with 500 m of ascent and 1'340 m of descent and a high point of about 2'450 m, graded as a demanding mountain hike, with the Ammertetäli as the quieter approach from the Lenk side. Overnight options named on the route are the Berghaus Engstligenalp, Adelboden and Lenk. The pass is also a stage on the multi-day traverse from Gstaad over Lauenen and the Iffigenalp to the Chindbettipass and the Lötschenpass. adelboden-lenk.ch. ↩