As of: 6 September 2026

Wild camping at the Furkapass

Wild camping is banned at the pass itself: the saddle lies in Realp, and Realp bans it across the whole commune. Forty metres south to west you are in Obergoms, where neither Valais cantonal law nor the commune forbids a night. The flatter ground is over there too.

Leon Helg
Leon Helg · Legal situation checked in September 2026 · Published 6 September 2026
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.

What "wild camping" means here: one night. A small tent or a bivvy bag, up towards evening, gone in the morning. Not a base camp, not a camper van. Most Swiss bans are written against camping; whether a single night also falls under them depends on the exact wording, so this article checks that wording. The full difference: wild camping vs bivouacking.

The Uri side: a commune-wide ban, hidden in the building rules

The gazetteer puts the pass in two places at once, which is correct rather than confusing: "Pass Furkapass (UR) - Realp" and "Strassenpass Furkapass (VS) - Obergoms", 130 metres apart. The Furka is a cantonal border, and the point most people mean sits on the Uri side, in Realp.4

Realp has no police regulation at all; its published collection runs to six acts. The camping rule is in the building and zoning ordinance, which is exactly where the neighbouring commune of Andermatt keeps its own:

"Auf dem gesamten Gemeindegebiet ist das Campieren nur auf bewilligten Campingplätzen zulässig. Das wilde Campieren ist verboten. Als Campieren wird die Benützung von Zelten, Wohnwagen, Mobilheime und dergleichen definiert."Bau- und Zonenordnung der Gemeinde Realp, Artikel 50 "Campieren", paragraph 1. In English: on the entire communal territory camping is permitted only on authorised campsites; wild camping is prohibited; camping is defined as the use of tents, caravans, mobile homes and the like.

Read what it does not qualify: the entire communal territory, no altitude line, no zone to be outside of. And unlike some communal bans, this one comes with a working door. Paragraph 2 provides that the Gemeinderat can authorise suitable locations, with the procedure following the cantonal camping ordinance. That is a real route, and it is the one to use if you want the Uri side.1

The cantonal 150 francs does not reach the pass

Uri does tariff camping at 150 francs, but only "in Schutzzonen", inside a designated protection zone with its own regulation. The cantonal protection series holds eighteen acts, and only one of them touches the Furka at all: the 2024 regulation protecting the Widen floodplain and further habitats along the Furkareuss between Realp and Hospental, whose article does prohibit "zu lagern, zu zelten oder zu campieren".5

Do not let the river in the title mislead you. That regulation's zone plan is drawn in two sheets, "Realp bis Steinbergen" and "Steinbergen bis Zumdorf", which is the valley floor downstream of Realp. The pass lies about 2.7 km upstream and some 890 m higher, outside the plan. So there is no cantonal fixed penalty at the Furkapass; what applies on the Uri side is the communal ordinance.5

Federal law is empty here. No game reserve, no wildlife rest zone, no landscape inventory object, no bog, no floodplain, no park, no forest reserve at the pass, with the invalid-layer control erroring rather than answering empty.6

The Valais side, forty metres away, forbids nothing

Walk south, south-west or west from the pass point and you cross into Obergoms, canton Valais, after about 40 metres; towards the north-west it takes 200 m. North and east you stay in Realp. That is the whole geography of the question.4

And on the Valais side the picture is the opposite of Realp's:

  • Cantonal law says nothing about camping. The Valais nature and landscape act and the hunting act both return zero camping, tent, bivouac or caravan terms on a word-boundary scan, against healthy control counts.2
  • The Obergoms police regulation has no camping provision. Four pages, and its one outdoor-access article prohibits driving a motor vehicle or bicycle off roads and signposted paths, which is not what you are doing with a tent.3
  • Its building regulation sets a threshold, not a ban. A building permit is required for "das Aufstellen von mobilen Wohnwagen, Zelten und dergleichen ausserhalb eines bewilligten Campingplatzes für mehr als 30 Tage". One night is nowhere near that line.3

So a single night on the Obergoms side is not prohibited by anything this article could find, and the search covered the canton, the commune's police regulation and the commune's building regulation with controls firing on each.

A word-boundary warning, because this one bites in French. A naive search for "tente" in the Valais acts scores hits, and every one of them is inside compétente or attente. Scanned with word boundaries the count is zero. Anyone quoting a Valais camping ban from a raw string search is quoting the word "competent".2

How to do it here

Do not sleep at the pass. The point is the road: tarmac at zero metres, the nearest building 48 m away, a marked path at the same spot. It is a car park with a view, busy through the summer and floodlit by headlights half the night. That is why this report says not allowed even though the Valais side is open.4

The ground to use is 127 metres west-north-west, and it is the flattest in the box. It reads 0.4 degrees at 2'428.7 m and the boundary layer puts it in Obergoms. Three more Valais-side options sit within 152 m: 1.9 degrees at 112 m, 2.6 degrees at 135 m and 3.1 degrees at 152 m. For scale, the box median is 27.0 degrees and only 26 of 961 samples come in under 10, so this saddle really is the gentle exception in steep country.4

The Uri-side flat ground is further and on the banned side: 1.7 degrees at 2'467.8 m, 329 m north, and 2.4 degrees at 2'440.1 m, 425 m north-north-east. If you want those, that is what article 50 paragraph 2 and the Gemeinderat are for.1

The things that keep this open

Being lawful is not the same as being welcome, and a pass with a road through it is watched. Pitch out of sight of the road rather than beside it, arrive late and leave early, take everything including the things that were already there, and light no fire. At 2'425 m this is also a short season: snow lies late and returns early, and the pass road itself closes in winter.

And keep the border in mind as a real line, not a feeling. Forty metres is small enough that an honest mistake is easy in fog or after dark. If you are relying on being in Valais, take the bearing deliberately: south to west from the pass point, not north, and check the coordinates before you commit rather than after.4

General rules for wild camping

You are on a border where one side has a ban with a permit route and the other has nothing. That asymmetry survives only as long as the Valais side stays unremarkable:

  • 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.

Not allowed describes the pass point itself, which is the road saddle in Realp: a communal ban applies there, and it is not a place anyone should pitch regardless. It does not describe the Valais ground west of it, where no prohibition was found.

The Obergoms finding is a negative, so it is reported with its controls: the cantonal acts and both communal regulations were scanned with word boundaries and each returned healthy counts for control terms while returning zero for camping terms. A negative without controls would not be publishable.

The cantonal border was measured on the current-year municipal boundary layer, walking outward from the pass point. Forty metres is inside the error of a phone GPS in poor visibility, so treat the direction as the instruction rather than the distance.

Frequently asked questions

Is wild camping allowed at the Furkapass?
Not at the pass itself. The pass point lies in Realp, whose building and zoning ordinance states in article 50 that camping across the entire communal territory is allowed only on authorised campsites and that wild camping is prohibited. The point is also the pass road, with a building 48 metres away, so it is not a pitch on any reading. About 40 metres south to west, in Obergoms in Valais, no norm prohibits a single night.
What is the fine on the Uri side?
Not the cantonal 150 francs, which does not reach the pass. Uri tariffs camping at 150 francs only inside designated protection zones with their own regulation, and the only such act touching the Furka covers the Furkareuss valley floor between Realp and Hospental, downstream and some 890 metres lower. What applies at the pass is the communal ordinance, enforced by the commune rather than by a published tariff.
Is the Valais side really free?
Nothing found prohibits a single night there. Valais cantonal law returns no camping terms on a word-boundary scan with healthy controls; the Obergoms police regulation contains no camping provision, its only access article being about motor vehicles and bicycles off roads; and its building regulation requires a permit only for pitching beyond 30 days. That is a negative reported with its controls, not an assumption.
Where exactly should I pitch?
About 127 metres west-north-west of the pass point, at roughly 2'429 metres. That spot measures 0.4 degrees, the flattest reading in the whole box, and the boundary layer places it in Obergoms. Further Valais-side options lie at 112, 135 and 152 metres. Going north instead puts you back in Realp and under its ban.
Can I get permission for the Uri side?
Yes, that route exists. Article 50 paragraph 2 of the Realp ordinance provides that the Gemeinderat can authorise suitable locations for camping, with the procedure following the cantonal camping ordinance. That is the proper way to use the Uri side, and it is worth knowing because not every commune with a ban publishes a working door.
Leon Helg

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

Sources

  1. Bau- und Zonenordnung der Gemeinde Realp, article 50 "Campieren", paragraph 1: "Auf dem gesamten Gemeindegebiet ist das Campieren nur auf bewilligten Campingplätzen zulässig. Das wilde Campieren ist verboten. Als Campieren wird die Benützung von Zelten, Wohnwagen, Mobilheime und dergleichen definiert." Paragraph 2: "Der Gemeinderat kann für das Campieren geeignete Standorte bewilligen. Das Bewilligungsverfahren richtet sich nach der kantonalen Campingverordnung (70.2431)." The ordinance runs to 48'840 characters with control counts of 179 for "Art.", 102 for "Zone" and 74 for "Bauten". The commune's published legal collection, checked 6 September 2026, contains six acts, namely the Gemeindeordnung, this Bau- und Zonenordnung, the Feuerwehrreglement, the Gebührenreglement, the Hundeverordnung and the Parkplatzverordnung; there is no Polizeireglement. realp.ch. ↩
  2. Valais cantonal law, fetched 6 September 2026 through the cantonal register and scanned with word boundaries. Loi sur la protection de la nature, du paysage et des sites, RS/VS 451.1, in force, 51'576 characters, and Loi sur la chasse et la protection des mammifères et oiseaux, RS/VS 922.1, in force, 39'640 characters, both return zero occurrences of camping, camper, tente, tentes, bivouac, bivouacs, caravane and caravanes when matched on word boundaries, against control counts of 230 and 141 for "art" respectively. A substring search without boundaries falsely scores 10 and 2 hits, every one of them inside "compétente" or "attente", which is why the boundary form is the only usable one. lex.vs.ch. ↩
  3. Communal law of Obergoms, checked 6 September 2026. The Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Obergoms, four pages and 6'856 characters with a control count of 26 for "Art.", contains no provision on camping, tents, bivouac or caravans; its article 7 "Verbotener Verkehr ausserhalb von Strassen und signalisierten Wegen" punishes whoever, without the owner's permission and without demonstrated need, drives off roads and signposted paths, over alps, pastures, meadows or fields "mit einem Motorfahrzeug oder Fahrrad", and its article 2 provides that contraventions are punished with fines. The Bau- und Zonenreglement (BZR) Obergoms, 242'410 characters with control counts of 484 for "Art." and 606 for zone and commune terms, treats camping as the Campingzone of its article 120 and, in the list of works additionally requiring a building permit, as "das Aufstellen von mobilen Wohnwagen, Zelten und dergleichen ausserhalb eines bewilligten Campingplatzes für mehr als 30 Tage". It contains no prohibition on a single night. gemeinde.obergoms.ch. ↩
  4. Position, cantonal border, terrain and surroundings, measured 6 September 2026. The federal gazetteer returns both "Pass Furkapass (UR) - Realp" at LV95 2'674'958 / 1'158'317 and "Strassenpass Furkapass (VS) - Obergoms" at 2'674'851 / 1'158'388. At the Uri point the terrain surface is 2'424.8 m and the current-year municipal boundary layer returns Realp. Walking outward from that point on eight bearings, the commune changes to Obergoms after 40 m on bearings 180, 225 and 270 and after 200 m on bearing 315, while bearings 0, 45, 90 and 135 remain in Realp. Terrain on the 2 metre model over an 800 by 800 metre box sampled at 25 m: 4.6 degrees at the pass point, median slope 27.0 degrees, elevations 2'309.3 to 2'663.9 m, 26 of 961 samples under 10 degrees. Candidates with their commune: 0.4 degrees at 2'428.7 m, 127 m on bearing 281, Obergoms; 1.9 degrees at 2'429.3 m, 112 m on bearing 297, Obergoms; 2.6 degrees at 2'428.7 m, 135 m on bearing 292, Obergoms; 3.1 degrees at 2'428.9 m, 152 m on bearing 279, Obergoms; 1.7 degrees at 2'467.8 m, 329 m on bearing 9, Realp; 2.4 degrees at 2'440.1 m, 425 m on bearing 28, Realp. Surroundings at the pass point, measured with the identify tolerance calibrated to one pixel per metre and verified against a control point in central Bern: road at 0 m, nearest building in the federal register at 48 m, marked path at 0 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩
  5. Uri cantonal protection law, enumerated 6 September 2026 through the official register. Reglement über die Erhebung von Ordnungsbussen (OBR), RB 3.9223, section 2 item 2.1 prices "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)" at 150 francs, so the penalty attaches to a designated protection zone and its own regulation. The RB 10.51xx series holds eighteen acts in force. The only one concerning the Furka area is RB 10.5126, "Reglement über den Schutz der Aue Widen und weiterer Lebensräume entlang der Furkareuss zwischen Realp und Hospental" of 17 September 2024, in force since 1 October 2024, whose prohibitions include "zu lagern, zu zelten oder zu campieren" and, separately, lighting fires except at the designated rest areas. Its annex 1 is the "Schutzzonenplan ... Teilplan West: Realp bis Steinbergen, Teilplan Ost: Steinbergen bis Zumdorf", that is the valley floor downstream of Realp; the pass lies roughly 2.7 km upstream and about 890 m higher and is therefore outside it. RB 10.5119, the regulation protecting the waters of the Urserntal, contains no camping term at all. rechtsbuch.ur.ch. ↩
  6. Official federal geodata, queried 6 September 2026 at LV95 2'674'958 / 1'158'317. Identify returns empty results for federal game reserves, wildlife rest zones, the BLN inventory, raised and lowland bogs, mire landscapes, floodplains, dry grasslands, amphibian sites, Ramsar and Emerald sites, parks of national importance and forest reserves. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id returning HTTP 400 while real layers return HTTP 200. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩