Wild camping on the Glishorn

Wild camping on the Glishorn: a flat summit above Brig

Which mountain. The Glishorn, 2'525 m, is the summit that rises straight above Brig and Glis on the south side of the Rhone valley in the canton of Valais. The summit point is at WGS84 46.28381 N, 7.99152 E (LV95 2'642'611 / 1'125'972). All of it lies in the commune of Brig-Glis: Ried-Brig begins 2.1 km to the north-east, Visperterminen 2.6 km to the south-west and Simplon 3.1 km to the south.⁵

A flat top with a cliff on one side. Brig Simplon Tourismus describes the summit as a flat dome with a steep edge and a summit book. North of the summit point the ground drops 100 m within 50 m, down the face above Brig. To the west and south-west it stays between 2'500 and 2'520 m for more than 150 m: a grass plateau with about 5'600 m² of ground under 8 degrees, centred 148 m west of the top at 2'513 m. There is no tree up here, no building within 1.2 km and no water on the plateau.⁵⁹

How people get there. The tourism office publishes a route from the Simplonpass past the Undre Rossusee and over the Glishorn down to Brig, rated difficult, about seven hours, and the same mountain trail is walked up from Brig by Holzji, Schratt and Mattustafel. The white-red-white trail crosses the west side of the plateau, 136 m from the summit point; the path down to Mattustafel starts about 250 m west of the top.⁹⁵

So a night up here is easy to picture: the plateau takes a tent, and the view from the edge is why people come. What decides it is a sentence in the commune's police regulation.

Brig-Glis fines camping on public ground outside its camping zones

Art. 15 of the police regulation. The Polizeireglement of the Stadtgemeinde Brig-Glis, adopted by the communal assembly on 26 May 2014 and approved by the Valais government on 1 October 2014, lists the offences it punishes. Camping is one of them:¹

"Wer auf öffentlichem Grund und Boden ausserhalb der von der Gemeinde dafür bezeichneten Zonen campiert."Polizeireglement der Stadtgemeinde Brig-Glis, art. 15. In English: anyone who camps on public ground outside the zones the commune designates for it.

Up to CHF 5'000, negligence included. The fine is up to CHF 5'000 (art. 2), an offence committed through negligence is punishable too (art. 1 para. 3), and the regulation applies on the whole territory of the commune, the mountain included (art. 1). The commune's police court decides (art. 4). The regulation has no permit clause and the commune publishes no fixed-fine list, so there is no ticket price to quote and no form to apply for.¹

The only zone is in the valley. The zone the commune designates for camping is the camping zone C of its building and zoning regulation, "grundsätzlich für das Camping bestimmt" (art. 80), and on the zoning plan it covers the campsite at Brigerbad on the Rhone, 4.9 km from the summit. On the Glishorn, the summit point is zoned as the commune's remaining land, which the regulation describes as unproductive rock and mountain ground (art. 84), and the plateau as agricultural land.²

A tent is caught; a bivvy bag is an open question. The article names camping and nothing else. Naters, across the Rhone, writes "Campieren und Übernachten" into its rule; Brig-Glis does not mention overnighting, and no published decision says whether a night in a bivvy bag without a tent counts as camping. That is an edge, not a route: ask the Stadtpolizei before you rely on it.¹⁷

Why the summit counts as public ground, and what is unclear about the plateau

The rock is the commune's by law. The Valais act introducing the Civil Code puts uncultivable land into the communes' public property:³

"Die Gemeindestrassen, die nicht kultivierbaren Regionen, wie Felsen, Schutthalden, Schneefelder und Gletscher, Seen, alle Wasserläufe, ab demjenigen Punkt wo sie entspringen, fallen in das öffentliche Eigentum der Gemeinden."Einführungsgesetz zum Zivilgesetzbuch, Valais, SGS 211.1, art. 163 para. 3. In English: communal roads, uncultivable regions such as rock, scree, snowfields and glaciers, lakes and all watercourses are public property of the communes.

Art. 164 of the same act leaves the common use of public things to cantonal law and to the regulations of canton and communes, which is where art. 15 comes in. On the rocky summit, the rule applies without any doubt.³

The plateau is pasture with no owner on record. The grass west of the top is zoned agricultural land, and the official survey has no parcel up here: the whole 26 km² from the Glishorn down the slope is a single unsurveyed lot, "Brig-Glis 12", classed as alp, in the land register of Brig. No published source names its owner. The Burgergemeinde Brig-Glis, a public-law corporation, lists "Wäldern, Alpen und Weiden" among its assets without naming them. If the plateau belongs to the Burgergemeinde or to the commune, it is public ground, the same reading that applies to the Burgergemeinde's alp at the Belalp across the valley. Only a private owner would take it out of art. 15, and none is on record.⁴³

The Glishorn game reserve and the landscape zone: what they change

No federal protected area. At the summit and on the plateau there is no federal game reserve, wildlife rest zone, BLN landscape, moor, floodplain, amphibian site, dry meadow, forest reserve or military ground. Nothing from Bern adds a rule here.⁵

The cantonal game reserve no. 28 Glishorn starts at the trail. Valais keeps its own game reserves next to the federal ones, and the one named after the mountain covers 399 ha west and south-west of the summit. On the plateau its line follows the marked trail: the summit point is 131 m outside it, the west part of the plateau 11 to 25 m. A cantonal reserve bans hunting and nothing else: the hunting decree for 2026 to 2027 bans "jegliche Jagd" in these reserves (art. 37 para. 3) and gives the Glishorn reserve no special rule, the hunting act has none for walkers, tents or fires, and the federal game-reserve camping ban with its CHF 150 fine applies only to federal reserves. Where the line runs is decided by the canton's hunting map. The high hunt opened on 21 September 2026, so in autumn hunters are out along these edges.⁶

The landscape zone protects the view, not the night. The middle and west of the plateau lie in a landscape protection zone of cantonal importance, the summit point does not. The zoning regulation allows buildings and installations there only where they are tied to the place, and asks for a permit for terrain changes (art. 76). It says nothing about walking or sleeping, so it does not change the answer either way.²

Where you sleep instead: the Simplon Hospiz, or a tent at Brigerbad

A bed at the start of the route: the Simplon Hospiz. The hospice of the canons of the Great St Bernard stands on the Simplonpass at about 2'000 m, 5.1 km south-east of the summit, where the tourism route over the Glishorn begins. It takes walkers for the night, with a dormitory bed from CHF 45 per person and a simple room from CHF 60, bedding included, so no sleeping bag is needed. Sleep there and walk over the Glishorn to Brig the next day.⁸

A tent: the campsite at Brigerbad. The commune's only camping zone is the campsite at Brigerbad, by the thermal baths on the Rhone, 4.9 km from the summit and about 1'900 m lower. Brig Simplon Tourismus lists it as open all year: +41 27 948 48 37, camping@brigerbad.ch. Ask about a tent pitch before you arrive in autumn.⁸²

The Rossusee lakes are no way out. The route from the pass runs past two small lakes 2.5 to 3.2 km south of the summit. The Obre Rossusee and the north-east shore of the Undre Rossusee are Brig-Glis ground, where art. 15 applies. West of the lower lake the commune of Simplon begins, and Simplon publishes no camping rule; but that ground lies inside the installation perimeter of the army's Simplon firing range, which publishes no rules for walkers on its ground. It is not a pitch to plan a night around.⁸

Ried-Brig has the same rule. The commune north-east of the Glishorn, with Rosswald, punishes camping on public ground outside the zones it designates in the same words as Brig-Glis, also with a fine of up to CHF 5'000.⁸

Check the firing days before you start at the pass. The army fires on the Simplon in spring and autumn, and on firing days zones next to the pass are closed. The current notice is on armee.ch under no. 1204.100.⁸

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which near the Glishorn means the campsite at Brigerbad. On the mountain the same courtesy holds by day: carry your water, leave nothing behind, and keep to the trail on the plateau in autumn, when hunters are out along the edge of the game reserve.

• 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 October 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 art. 15 of the Brig-Glis police regulation with the fines of its art. 2, on the commune having no camping zone outside Brigerbad, and on the Valais introductory act to the Civil Code. That the grass plateau is public ground is a reading of those texts: the land register publishes no owner for it, the commune has not confirmed the reading, and no published case shows how the police court applies art. 15 to a night on the mountain or to a bivvy bag. The boundaries and distances are taken from the published geometry, which is as accurate as the data and not as a marker on the ground. Prices, seasons and contacts are taken from their publishers as of October 2026 and can change. Before every tour, check the current situation with the commune and on site.

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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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