Wild camping on the Dreispitz

The ban, and why partial protection does not soften it

Start with where the summit is. Queried on 15 August 2026 at 2'624'600 / 1'160'200 in LV95, 46.592611 N / 7.759644 E, on ground the national model puts at 2'516.1 metres: the point returns federal game reserve object no. 3, "Kiental", 8'392.1 hectares. Every other federal layer is empty here. No wildlife rest zone, no BLN landscape, no mire, no bog, no dry meadow, no park, no forest reserve, and no building zone. Verified with an invalid-layer control that returns HTTP 400 rather than an empty list.¹

The reserve's official object sheet, 2023 revision, describes it as the two side valleys of the Kandertal, the Spiggegrund and the Gorneregrund, running up to the chain of the Morgenhorn and the Chilchflue and down the valley floor towards Reichenbach im Kandertal. Its stated objectives are the conservation of the area as a habitat for wild mammals and birds, with particular importance given to the protection of grouse, and the regulation of chamois and roe deer so that damage to the forest falls.²

Then the rule. The Verordnung über die eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebiete, SR 922.31, art. 5 para. 1 lit. e reads in full: "Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze. Die Kantone können Ausnahmen bewilligen." Free tenting and camping is prohibited, the use of official campsites is reserved, and cantons may permit exceptions.³

Now the objection you will hear, because it is a good one. The inventory types Kiental as a Gebiet mit partiellen Schutzbestimmungen, an area with partial protection regulations, not integral. The Säntis reserve above the Schwägalp is integral. Surely partial means the rules are softer?

Not for camping, and the ordinance shows this itself in two ways. First, art. 5 para. 1 opens with "In den Banngebieten gelten folgende allgemeine Bestimmungen", these general provisions apply in the reserves, without distinguishing type. Second, where the drafters did want an exception for partial-protection areas, they wrote one explicitly: lit. d, on carrying weapons, lets the cantons permit exceptions "für Gebiete mit partiellem Schutz". Lit. e contains no such clause. A carve-out that exists in one letter and not the next is a decision, not an oversight.³

And the object sheet closes the last gap. Under special measures it says only "Für das ganze Gebiet gelten die partiellen Schutzbestimmungen", and a word-boundary scan of the whole sheet returns zero occurrences of Zelt, Campier or Biwak. There is no object-specific camping rule here that could loosen or tighten the general one.²

The price is on the fixed-penalty list. The Ordnungsbussenverordnung, SR 314.11, carries at no. 12005 of its annex the offence "Freies Zelten oder Campieren in eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebieten", referring to art. 18 para. 1 lit. e and para. 3 of the Hunting Act and to art. 5 para. 1 lit. e of the game-reserve ordinance, at 150 francs. Being on that list is what makes it a ticket written where you stand rather than a theoretical exposure.⁴

The boundary runs along the north side of the summit

This is the part worth carrying in your head, because the reserve is enormous and its edge is not where you would guess.

Walking outwards from the summit on eight compass bearings and asking the federal layer at each step, with a control point deep inside the reserve and another far outside it to prove the queries answer honestly:¹

North: outside from about 25 metres. The boundary runs right along the top. North-east: still inside at 100 m, outside by 200 m. East, south-east, south, south-west and west: inside at every step out to 800 metres and beyond. North-west is ragged, outside around 200 to 400 m and inside again at 800 m, which is a good reminder that the perimeter is a drawn line and not a circle.¹

So the reserve fills the ground south and east of the Dreispitz for kilometres, and the only short way out is downhill to the north. But out of the federal reserve is not out of every reserve: the ground north of the line is the cantonal Wildschutzgebiet Latrejenalp and nature reserve Suldtal, with a camping ban of their own, so on this mountain "just walk outside it" does not produce a legal night in any direction.⁶

Where the flat ground is, and why it is banned too

A masked slope scan over the 700 metres around the summit, stepping every 70 metres and discarding anything inside a water polygon, found exactly one spot at or under 7 degrees: 3.6 degrees at 2'253.4 metres, LV95 2'624'670 / 1'160'550, 357 metres from the summit on a bearing of 11 degrees, north-north-east and 263 metres lower. Checked at its own coordinate with the same controls, it is outside the federal game reserve.¹

And that is where the first version of this article stopped, and it was wrong to. The same coordinate, asked of the wildlife-rest-zone layer, returns the cantonal Wildschutzgebiet Latrejenalp, Nr. 1028 Zone 1a: legally binding, decided 2024, protected all year from 1 January to 31 December, and carrying the WTSchV sentence "Freies/wildes Campieren und Biwakieren sind verboten". The Bern cantonal dataset draws the same polygon, and the shelf lies inside it. It also lies inside cantonal nature reserve Nr. 58 Suldtal, whose 1968 decree bans "das Campieren, das Aufschlagen von Zelten oder andern Unterständen". Two cantonal bans, one of them naming the bivouac outright, on the ground this article once recommended. The sanction is the cantonal hunting act, Art. 31, a fine of up to CHF 20'000 in ordinary proceedings with no fixed tariff, and the nature reserve's own fine on top.⁶

So the honest map of the Dreispitz has no legal night on it. The summit is federal reserve, CHF 150. The shelf below it is cantonal reserve, no ticket book but a real ban. The Latrejen and Suld ground to the north is Wildschutzgebiet and nature reserve for kilometres, and the Kiental floor to the south-east is federal reserve down to the village. Sleep in Kiental or at Griesalp instead: the Naturfreundehaus Gorneren, the Golderli, the hotels, or the Touristenlager on the Bundalp, all a bus ride and a walk from the Renggpass approach.⁶

Two things that still apply. The reserve boundaries are lines on a map with no fence and no sign, and here three of them meet within a few hundred metres, so "outside" is never a safe word on this mountain. And the grouse the reserves exist for do not read perimeters either: they sit tight in the low scrub and flush late, so keep to worn ground and keep the noise down whichever side of any line you are on.²

And the summit was never a tent site anyway

Worth saying plainly, because it changes what you are actually giving up. The summit measures 26.9 degrees. It is the local high point, and the ground within 100 metres drops from 2'515.7 m to 2'424.0 m around a mean of 2'481.2 m. That is a steep, narrow top, which is what makes it a viewpoint.¹

The approaches match. The usual line comes up from Kiental over the Renggpass at 1'817 m, and the ridge traverse from the Latrejespitz at 2'436 m is described by people who have done it as loose slate that crumbles and slips underfoot, on top of roughly twelve kilometres of rough road into the Spiggegrund just to reach the start. This is a long day out, not a stroll with a tent.⁵

So the rule and the mountain agree for once. You were not going to sleep on the Dreispitz. The question was only whether the flat ground below it was legal, and it is.

General rules for wild camping

If you take the pitch north of the boundary, you are on open alpine ground in a valley whose whole point is undisturbed wildlife. That asks for more than the 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 boundary figures come from point queries against the federal layer, re-run after a first pass rendered failed queries as if they meant outside. The figures above are from a run with a deep-inside control, a far-outside control, and query errors kept distinct from a negative answer. They are still point samples: treat 25 metres as a warning that the edge is close, not as a surveyed line.

The terrain values come from the national height model, not from a visit. Use your own eyes on arrival.

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.

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