Wild camping at the Bockmattli: lawful, and the pitch is not the tower

Three levels, and all three come back empty

Wild camping at the Bockmattli rests on an absence, and an absence is only worth something if you can say exactly where you looked. So here is each level, with what was actually checked.

Federal. Queried on 11 August 2026 at three separate points, the summit at 1'932.6 m, the Bockmattlipass at 1'796.1 m and the Bockmattlihütte at about 1'500 m: no hunting-ban district, no wildlife rest zone, no BLN landscape, no mire, raised bog, fen, moorland, floodplain, dry-meadow or amphibian object, no Emerald site, no forest reserve, no park of national importance and no UNESCO site. Two controls turn that into a finding. A positive control at LV95 2'626'000 / 1'154'500 returns federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental, so the layers answer. An invalid-layer control returns HTTP 400 rather than an empty set, which is the trap that makes a typo look like an all-clear.¹

Cantonal. Canton Schwyz has no general camping prohibition, and there are exactly two places in its law where the word appears at all. One is the planning catalogue: § 18 para. 2 lit. g of the Planungs- und Baugesetz lists intensive-recreation zones for "Camping- und Zeltplätze", which is a zone type, not a rule about you. The other is the one people quote at each other, so here it is in full:³

"Wohnwagen, Mobilheime und dergleichen dürfen zur Benützung für mehr als 48 Stunden nur auf bewilligten Campingplätzen aufgestellt werden."Canton of Schwyz, Planungs- und Baugesetz, SRSZ 400.100 of 14 May 1987, § 70 para. 1.

Caravans, mobile homes "und dergleichen", and only when used for longer than 48 hours. A rucksack tent carried up 1'000 metres of ascent and gone by breakfast is neither the object nor the duration this article describes, and reading it onto a bivvy bag would stretch it past what it says. The canton's other candidate, the Landschafts- und Naturschutzgesetz SRSZ 721.110, contains no occurrence of Zelt, Campieren, Camping, Biwak, Übernachten or Betreten at all; it is a framework under which communes designate protection perimeters, and the operative camping ban in this canton is therefore communal rather than cantonal.⁴

Communal, and this is where a Schwyz verdict is usually decided. Innerthal publishes its regulations in one list, and the list is short enough to read: waste, building, electricity supply in two versions, fire brigade, cemetery, sewerage, parking fees, the deep-freeze plant and water supply. Ten documents. There is no police regulation and no camping regulation, which matters because in this canton those are exactly the two places a communal camping ban lives. And the building regulation itself, the version approved on 22 June 2021 that the public-law cadastre names as the one in force, contains zero occurrences of Zelt, Campieren, Camping, Biwak, Übernachten, Nächtigen, Wohnwagen, Fahrnisbaute or Feuer, on a scan where the control terms Zone and Art. match dozens of times, so the scan worked.²³

And the cadastre agrees about the ground you would be on. The public-law restrictions extract for the parcel under the summit, EGRID CH335379935490, parcel 107, 1'808'059 square metres, lists nine restrictions, and every one of them carries a surface geometry, so nothing was silently skipped. Tested at the actual coordinate, the only one covering the summit and the shelf is "Übriges Gemeindegebiet", legally in force, plus a noise-sensitivity level. Innerthal does carry nature-protection zones, a landscape-protection zone and a wildlife corridor in its plan. None of them reaches this point, which is what makes the negative worth reporting.²

The law says yes, the rock says not there

Here is the part I would want if I were walking up from the lake this afternoon, because at the Bockmattli the legal answer is the easy half.

The summit is a limestone tower. Sampled on the federal terrain model, the ground at the summit point runs at 44.6 degrees, and the Bockmattlipass is 28.5 degrees. Those are numbers for a climber, not a sleeper. Scan the same basin for flat ground above 1'750 m and keep a 50 metre buffer around the water, and one candidate wins clearly:⁵

Two things to know about the neighbours. There is an 8 by 8 metre pond at about 1'840 m below the pass, LV95 2'715'339 / 1'217'506, and the flattest ground in the whole scan sits twelve metres from its edge. Do not take it. That is the spot where a tent fouls the only water in the basin, and it is the reason the shelf above is the recommendation instead.⁵

And there is the Bockmattlihütte at about 1'450 to 1'500 m, the climbing hut under the north-west face, roughly two hours up from Innerthal at 906 m by way of the Schwarzenegg. It has a small guest bedroom, is staffed at weekends from late April to the end of October, and takes bookings on info@bockmattli.ch or +41 79 827 30 66. It is not a legal requirement to talk to anyone here. It is still the number to have, because the people who run it know which corner of that shoulder is being grazed this week, and a considerate camper who says hello is the reason places like this stay unregulated.⁶

The pass is two and a half metres from another canton

Summit: WGS84 47.100713 N / 8.958804 E, LV95 2'715'395 / 1'217'752, about 1'932.6 m, commune of Innerthal, canton Schwyz, on the ridge that closes the Wägital above the Wägitalersee. The Bockmattlihütte and the climbing towers are on the north-west side, the Bockmattlipass cuts the ridge at about 1'796 m.

Now the detail that would catch you out. The cantonal border runs through the Bockmattlipass. Bisected against the federal boundary layer, filtered to the current year so a merged-away commune cannot answer for a modern one, the line sits between LV95 2'715'268.0, which is Innerthal SZ, and 2'715'268.1, which is Glarus Nord GL. The gazetteer's pass point is 2.5 metres from the Glarus side. Step over the saddle and you have changed canton.⁷

For once that is not a trap, and it is worth saying plainly: canton Glarus has no camping provision either. Four Glarus acts were read in full for an earlier article on this site, including the cantonal fixed-penalty ordinance, and none of them contains Campieren, Zelt, Biwak or Übernachten. So the answer does not flip when your feet cross the line. What does change is the commune, and with it whichever communal rules Glarus Nord happens to carry, which this article has not checked for you. The recommendation stays on the Schwyz side, where everything above has been verified.⁸

One thing I will not pretend to settle: whether the shoulder you pick is being grazed or cut in the week you arrive. That is what the hut number is for, and the alp staff's word beats any map.

Where you can legally sleep

• The Chälen shelf at 1'848.8 m, LV95 2'714'850 / 1'217'275, 1.7 degrees, above the treeline and 541 m back from the pond, for one night⁵.
• The higher shelf at 1'929.3 m, 3.0 degrees, if you want to be level with the towers⁵.
• Not on the summit or in the saddle, at 44.6 and 28.5 degrees respectively, and not within fifty metres of the pond below the pass.
• The Bockmattlihütte, about 1'450 to 1'500 m, small guest bedroom, staffed at weekends from late April to the end of October, if you would rather have a roof⁶.

General rules for wild camping

This matters more where you actually may than where you may not, and at the Bockmattli you may. Innerthal has no camping rule to lose, which is exactly the kind of thing a bad night out is how a place gets one.

• 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

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of August 2026. It is based on the publicly accessible and official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.

The verdict rests on the absence of any prohibition at the federal, cantonal and communal levels, and an absence can end: Innerthal could adopt a police or camping regulation, and canton Schwyz could legislate. The recommendation is for the Schwyz side of the ridge; the Glarus Nord side across the pass has not been checked at communal level here. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself and follow instructions on site. A genuine emergency bivouac in distress is a separate question from a planned camp. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and any consequences themselves. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this text, and call on no one to break applicable law.

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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.

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