Wild camping on the Cousimbert: it depends on the date, not the place

Two levels of law that say nothing at all

Start with the federal layers. Queried on 16 August 2026 at Le Cousimbert, also called Käsenberg, 2'580'655 / 1'171'224 in LV95, 46.691950 N / 7.185739 E, at 1'632.7 metres: no federal game reserve, no BLN landscape, no mire landscape, no fen, no raised bog, no amphibian site, no dry meadow, no park of national importance, no forest reserve and no building zone. An invalid layer name returns HTTP 400 rather than an empty list, so the emptiness is an answer. Canton Fribourg, commune La Roche, from current-year records.¹

Fribourg does not prohibit camping. Six cantonal texts were read in full, with word-boundary matching and control terms that count normally: the constitutional text (140.1), the act on nature and landscape protection (721.0.1) and its implementing regulation (721.0.11), the forest act (921.1), the hunting act (922.1) and the ordinance on fixed penalties (33.11). Across all six there is not a single occurrence of camping, camper, campement, bivouac, bivouaquer, tente, caravane or roulotte. This matters because a lot of writing online asserts that Fribourg bans wild camping outright. In the cantonal statute book, it does not.²

The commune does not either, and that is unusually easy to verify here. Camping bans normally live at communal level, so this is where the research usually gets difficult. La Roche publishes its complete set of communal regulations as an enumerated list: twenty of them, covering the council's organisation, shop opening hours, citizenship, the fire service, schools, dental care, drinking water, waste in three separate acts, waste water, the cemetery, added-value tax, administrative fees, landowner contributions, dog ownership and communal finances. There is no règlement de police among them, and not one of the twenty concerns camping, tents or bivouac.³

So two of the three levels are genuinely silent. What is left is one ordinance, and it is the whole article.

The rest zone, and the seven months it closes

The summit lies inside the wildlife rest zone "La Berra (Nr. 1.1)". The federal register records it as decided in 2013, canton Fribourg, protection status rechtsverbindlich, contraignant, legally binding, with a protection period of 1 December to 30 June and the provision code R120: access only on pistes, tracks and marked paths or routes, dogs on the lead.¹

The instrument behind it is a cantonal ordinance. The Ordonnance concernant la zone de tranquillité de La Berra, RSF 922.31, of 11 November 2013, in force since 1 December 2013, in the version in force since 1 January 2022. It rests on art. 7 al. 4 of the federal hunting act and art. 10 al. 1 of the cantonal hunting act, which charges the Conseil d'Etat with the measures needed to protect wild mammals and birds against disturbance. Its stated purpose in art. 1 is protection against disturbance "en particulier ceux qui sont causés par les activités de loisirs", during winter and the period when young animals are reared.⁴

Art. 3 is the one that decides your night. "Du 1^er décembre au 30 juin, la zone de tranquillité ne peut être parcourue que sur les itinéraires autorisés, sous réserve de la restriction d'horaire indiquée sur la carte. Cette obligation est valable pour tout moyen de locomotion ou de déplacement." From 1 December to 30 June the zone may be crossed only on the authorised itineraries, and that holds for any means of movement. The authorised itineraries are drawn on Annexe 1 and form part of the zone.⁴

You cannot pitch a tent on a marked itinerary and you cannot pitch it off one without leaving the itinerary. In that seven-month window, a bivouac inside this perimeter is not compatible with art. 3. From 1 July to 30 November the obligation simply does not apply, and since nothing else in federal, cantonal or communal law prohibits camping here, a single night in that window is lawful.⁴²

Now the sanction, which is where this gets misreported. The ordinance's own penal article, art. 12 al. 1, says that whoever breaches "les obligations énoncées à l'article 5" is liable to a fine under arts. 54 ff. of the cantonal hunting act. Article 5 is the one about organised events with more than 50 participants. The explicit fine is not attached to art. 3. Art. 12 al. 2 reserves the penal provisions of nature, road traffic and forest legislation, and art. 12 al. 3, introduced on 1 January 2022, reserves breaches that the cantonal fixed-penalty legislation sanctions by fixed penalty.⁴

So what does the fixed-penalty list actually say about this zone? The cantonal Ordonnance sur les amendes d'ordre, RSF 33.11, has a dedicated block for the La Berra ordinance. It contains exactly one entry: number 402, "Obligation de tenir les chiens en laisse (art. 4 al. 1)", Fr. 150. That is the dog rule. There is no fixed penalty listed for art. 3. Anyone who tells you a tent here costs 150 francs is quoting the dog fine.⁵

What remains is art. 54 al. 1 of the hunting act, which provides a fine of up to 3'000 francs for breaching arts. 9, 11, 14 and 18 of that act or "les dispositions énumérées par la réglementation d'exécution". That is the residual route, and it is a court matter rather than a ticket. The honest summary: in the closed season the obligation is real and binding, but the only pre-priced ticket in this perimeter is for an unleashed dog.⁵⁴

How to do it, and where the ground actually is

Go between 1 July and 30 November. That is the entire trick. In those five months art. 3 is dormant, no cantonal or communal rule touches you, and this is an ordinary Prealpine ridge night. Outside them, pick somewhere else rather than arguing about whether your tent counts as a means of locomotion.⁴

Do not sleep on the summit itself. The high point reads 14.2 degrees, which is a slope, not a pitch. A scan of 169 samples out to 550 metres found 17 points at 10 degrees or flatter, and the usable ones are all just below the top.¹

The best ground is south-southwest along the ridge. The closest workable spot is 6.1 degrees at 1'630.0 m, about 60 metres southeast. Better and progressively flatter as you drop: 6.7 degrees at 1'622.3 m at 100 metres, 6.5 degrees at 1'617.2 m at 150 metres, and 6.0 degrees at 1'610.9 m at 220 metres, all on bearing 210. There is flatter ground still at 4.2 degrees and 1'513.3 m about 300 metres north-northeast, but that is 120 metres lower and off the crest.¹

Remember who else is exempt and who is not. Art. 7 of the ordinance releases farmers, alpine and forestry operators and landowners inside the perimeter from its rules. You are none of those. Art. 10 permits the La Berra lift company to groom a five-metre piste along the crest in winter between the chairlift top station and the chalet du Cousimbert, which tells you plainly what this ridge is in the closed season: a ski descent through a rest zone.⁴

Keep dogs on the lead in the protection period regardless. That is art. 4, it is the one rule here with a price on it, and 150 francs is the tariff.⁵

Practical notes. There is a buvette at the Gros Cousimbert about 590 metres north of the summit, so this is not remote ground and you will likely be seen. Carry your water, carry everything out, no fire, pitch late and strike early. And even in the open season, the reason the zone exists does not go away on 1 July: the animals it protects are still there, so keep it to one tent, one night, and stay off the steep flanks.¹⁴

General rules for wild camping

You are on a Prealpine ridge at just over 1'600 m inside a wildlife rest zone that is dormant in summer and binding in winter. That asks for more care than usual:

• 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 August 2026, from the sources linked below, and it is not legal advice.

The dates are the whole verdict. The protection period runs 1 December to 30 June inclusive, and the current version of the ordinance is recorded as in force until 30 June 2027, so check whether it has been renewed or amended before relying on this in a later season.

The perimeter and the authorised itineraries are defined by the map in Annexe 1 of the ordinance, not by a description in words. This article did not trace that perimeter line by line. If you are near its edge, check the rest-zone layer on map.geo.admin.ch against your phone GPS before you decide you are outside it.

The distances and slopes here are point samples from the national height model, not a survey. A query for buildings near the summit returned nothing, which should be read as unverified rather than as proof that nothing is there: the buvette at the Gros Cousimbert is about 590 m away.

Frequently asked questions

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.

Swiss Guide Wildcamping Checker Color Grading