Wild camping on the Fulen

Two cantons meet at the cairn, and for once they agree

Wild camping on the Fulen needs two legal systems checked rather than one, because the summit is a border. The mapped high point, 2'490.4 m by the federal height service, LV95 2'697'222 / 1'197'144, lies in the commune of Riemenstalden, canton Schwyz. Twenty-five metres south and twenty-five metres west it is Bürglen, canton Uri. I sampled the current-year commune layer in a cross rather than reading it off a map picture: north and east stay Schwyz for at least sixty metres, south and west are Uri from twenty-five metres out, and at a hundred and fifty metres only the north side is still Schwyz.⁵

Normally that is where an article like this gets complicated. Here it does not, and the reason is that both cantons write their camping rules the same way: not as a general prohibition, but as a prohibition inside areas they list by name.

Uri first. The Urner Polizeigesetz (RB 3.8111) and the Polizeireglement (RB 3.8127) were pulled in full and searched. Neither contains the word campieren, zelten, biwakieren or übernachten in any operative sense. What Uri does have is a fixed-penalty catalogue, and it does price camping.

"Lagern, Zelten oder Campieren in Schutzzonen (Art. 34 Abs. 1 Bst. a des Gesetzes über den Natur- und Heimatschutz, RB 10.5101 in Verbindung mit dem jeweiligen Reglement) 150 Franken"Reglement über die Erhebung von Ordnungsbussen (RB 3.9223), no. 2.1: camping in protection zones, CHF 150. Note the two conditions built into the text: it applies in Schutzzonen, and only in connection with the respective reglement.

Those two conditions are the whole answer for the Uri side. The offence is not "camping"; it is "camping in a protection zone", and a protection zone only exists where a reglement creates one. So I listed them. The Urner Rechtsbuch holds 23 nature-protection enactments, RB 10.5101 through 10.5135: the Urnersee south shore, Maderanertal and Fellital, Urnerboden, several around Andermatt, Gitschenen in Isenthal, Erstfeld, the Reuss plain, the Uri Mitte and Uri Nord waters, the Urserntal, the alpine flora reserve at Waldnacht-Surenen, the Furkareuss floodplain, the Oberalppass fens, the Bodenwald amphibian site, Scheidnössli. Not one of them covers Bürglen or this ridge. The only one anywhere in the Schächental is the Aue Rüti am Vorderschächen in the commune of Unterschächen, a valley-bottom floodplain a long way below and a different commune.¹

Schwyz next, and it is built the same way. The Schwyzer Polizeigesetz (SRSZ 520.110) and Polizeiverordnung (SRSZ 520.111) were pulled in full: no camping word in either. The prohibition lives in the Landschafts- und Naturschutzgesetz of 24 September 1992.

"In den im Anhang aufgeführten Pflanzenschutzreservaten dürfen mit Ausnahme der Neophyten oder Problempflanzen der landwirtschaftlichen Nutzung keine Pflanzen und Pilze gepflückt, ausgegraben oder ausgerissen werden. Das Campieren ist untersagt."Landschafts- und Naturschutzgesetz (SRSZ 721.110) § 9a para. 3: in the plant protection reserves listed in the annex, camping is forbidden. The camping sentence was added in 2021.

And again the list is closed and short. Annex list IV of the same act names exactly six plant protection reserves: Rossberg, the Rigi area, Zindlenspitz, the Mythen area, Hoch-Ybrig and the Köpfen area, each with a perimeter fixed by a numbered government decision from between 1965 and 1972. Separately, camping in a kantonales Naturschutzgebiet is a fixed-penalty offence of CHF 150, a figure the canton deliberately matched to the federal CHF 150 for free camping in a federal game reserve. Schwyz lists eleven such cantonal nature reserves: Aahorn, Bätzimatt, Breitried-Schützenried-Oberer Sihlsee-Allmig, Frauenwinkel, Ibergeregg, Lauerzersee-Sägel-Schutt, Hopfräben, Nuoler Ried, the Rothenthurm mire landscape, Schwantenau-Roblosen and Fänn-Allmig in Küssnacht. They are lowland and Sihlsee country. The words Fulen, Riemenstalden and Muotatal do not appear anywhere in the act.²

Seventeen named areas in Schwyz, twenty-three in Uri, and this ridge is none of the forty. That is what makes the verdict here a plain yes rather than a hedge: both cantons had the chance to write a general ban, both chose instead to name places, and neither named this one.

The communes are the last layer, and they are thin. Bürglen publishes a proper numbered Rechtssammlung, 37 enactments, and I went through all of them. There is no police ordinance. The Bau- und Zonenordnung contains no camping provision. The only two enactments that touch sleeping or vehicles at all are the Kurtaxenverordnung, which is a visitor-tax rule that expressly taxes overnight stays including on your own land and on campsites, and the Dauerparkverordnung, which is about leaving vehicles on public ground at night and says nothing about people or tents.³

Riemenstalden is the honest gap in this article, and I would rather name it than paper over it. The commune has roughly ninety inhabitants, and its Reglemente A-Z page renders exactly one sentence: "In dieser Rubrik gibt es zurzeit gerade keine Inhalte." There is nothing to search. That proves the website lists no enactments; it does not prove the commune has none. For a spot where the cantonal and federal layers are as clean as they are here that gap is not load-bearing, but if you want certainty on the Schwyz side, the commune is a phone call away.⁴

How a night here actually works

There is no permission to obtain and nobody to ask, which is rare enough on this site to be worth saying plainly. What is left is where to put yourself.

The one line worth not crossing is 797 metres south. That is where the federal dry-grassland object Hinter Wissenboden begins, on the Bürglen side and well down the slope. Dry grassland is exactly the kind of ground a canton designates, and while neither Uri nor Schwyz currently has a reglement making that object a protection zone with a camping ban, it is fragile ground that a tent damages, and the ethics do not wait for a reglement. Vorder Wissenboden follows at 1'461 metres south.⁵

Three more boundaries, all comfortably clear. The wildlife rest zone Chinzerberg (Nr. 17.17.1) begins 1'225 metres east-south-east. The nearest fen, Selez, is 2'201 metres west-south-west. The nearest BLN object, the big Vierwaldstättersee mit Kernwald, Bürgenstock und Rigi, is 2'773 metres west, and a BLN listing binds authorities in their own decisions rather than hikers in any case. The nearest federal game reserve, Silbern-Jägern-Bödmerenwald, is 9'143 metres east-north-east, which is the one number here that could have changed everything and does not come close.⁵

Fire: treat it as a no. Neither canton bans a stove on this ridge, but you are on open karst grass at 2'490 m with no water and no shelter, and the Schwyz nature act bans open fire in the reserves it lists anyway. Carry a gas stove, carry your water, and check the cantonal fire warning before you leave the valley.

What I could not find, said plainly: any fee and any arrangement. No honesty box, no rate anyone mentions, no designated corner. At other spots we publish the word-of-mouth figure because one genuinely exists and it is the most useful line in the article. Here there is nothing to publish, and inventing one would be worse than useless.

What the maps say, and where to actually sleep

The Fulen is the middle peak of the Lideren trilogy, the round that links Chaiserstock, Fulen and Rossstock above the Riemenstalden valley, and it is routinely called one of the finest alpine walking days in central Switzerland. At 2'490 metres it is the high point of the three.⁶

It is an alpine walk, not a stroll, and that shapes the timing. The classic approach leaves Riemenstalden and climbs through Fruttstägen to the Rossstocklücke at about 2'286 m before the final pull to the summit, and the cable car from Chäppeliberg up to Gitschen takes the day's climb down to roughly 1'300 metres of ascent. Either way, the upper ground is alpine terrain. Plan to be on the summit with light to spare, because picking a pitch here in the dark is not sensible.⁶

Where to put the mat. The top is grass and limestone, and flat ground is scattered rather than obvious, so choose in daylight. The saddle ground back towards the Rossstocklücke is kinder than the summit itself if the wind is up. Stay off the steep grass on the south and west flanks, which is where the Wissenboden dry grasslands begin further down. Take everything out, including the obvious. The Alpine Club's standard is the one to hold here: a single considerate night above the treeline is normally unproblematic, and the same leaflet asks you not to bed down right beside a grazed alp without asking.⁷

Every federal protection layer came back empty at the point, and I made the emptiness mean something. No federal game reserve, no wildlife rest zone, no BLN object, no fen, raised bog, mire landscape, floodplain, amphibian site, dry grassland, forest reserve or park at the summit. Each query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which returns an HTTP 400, so an empty answer is a genuine absence rather than a request that quietly failed. The point is also outside any building zone.⁵

Water: there is none up here. This is karst, the drainage is underground and a long way below, and the marked route does not pass a reliable source near the top. Fill up in the valley and carry it, cooking water included.

One currency flag, and it is the ordinary kind. Nothing on this page rests on a rule that is about to change, which is a pleasant contrast to some spots. But both cantons revise their protected-area lists from time to time, and a new Schutzzone reglement in Uri or a new cantonal nature reserve in Schwyz is exactly the kind of change that would matter here. The two collections are linked below and both are searchable in a couple of minutes.¹²

Where you can legally sleep

• On the summit and the ridge either side of it. Riemenstalden (SZ) to the north and east, Bürglen (UR) to the south and west, and neither prohibits it¹².
• The saddle back towards the Rossstocklücke if the wind makes the top untenable.
• Not down the south flank past about 800 metres, where the Hinter Wissenboden dry grassland begins⁵.
• Not east-south-east into the Chinzerberg wildlife rest zone, whose edge is 1'225 m away⁵.
• Not in any of the forty named protected areas the two cantons do list, none of which is on this mountain¹².

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are allowed to sleep outside, and on ground where two cantons have both decided not to write a rule it applies with interest. The reason a place like this stays open is that the people who use it give the authorities no reason to close it.

• 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.

Two limits belong on the record. First, the commune of Riemenstalden publishes no enactments at all, so the Schwyz communal layer could not be searched the way the Uri one could; that shows the website lists none, not that none exists. Second, the cantonal border across the summit was established from the federal commune layer filtered to the current year and sampled around the point, which is accurate to that data rather than to a surveyor's peg. Neither limit changes the verdict here, because no camping prohibition was found on either side at any level, but both are worth knowing. Cantonal protected-area lists change. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, check the fire warning, 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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