Wild camping at the Hagelseewli: both lakes of that name sit inside a federal reserve

The federal reserve is the decisive norm

Wild camping at the Hagelseewli is settled one level above the commune. Both lakes sit inside a federal hunting-ban district, and the federal ordinance that governs those districts contains a camping ban that applies regardless of who owns the ground and regardless of what the commune does or does not regulate.

"Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze. Die Kantone können Ausnahmen bewilligen."Ordinance on the federal hunting-ban districts (VEJ), SR 922.31, Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e: free tenting and camping are forbidden, the use of official campsites excepted, and the cantons may permit exceptions. Annex 1 lists object no. 4 "Schwarzhorn, Kanton BE".

The district is large. Object no. 4 covers 7'102 hectares across the Faulhorn and Schwarzhorn massif, and the federal geodata puts both Hagelseewli well inside it: the Brienz lake at LV95 2'645'682 / 1'169'262, 2'339 m, and the Meiringen lake at 2'649'772 / 1'171'104, 2'416 m. The same query run at the Bachalpsee returns the same district, which is why our Bachalpsee article reaches the same federal conclusion.⁴

Two details are worth stating precisely, because both get repeated wrongly. First, the sanction: breaches are prosecuted under Art. 18 of the federal Hunting Act, which sets fines up to CHF 20'000 for this class of contravention.¹ Second, the type of district: Schwarzhorn is registered as an area with partial protection provisions, and people assume that softens the camping rule. It does not. The partial-protection carve-out in the same article is written for weapons, lit. d, not for camping. The camping ban in lit. e reads the same in every district.

Does it reach a tentless bivouac? The wording bans "freies Zelten und Campieren", free tenting and camping. A sleeping bag under the sky with nothing pitched is not "Zelten", and whether it counts as "Campieren" has not been tested for this ordinance. That gap is real, but it is thin ice: you would be arguing it to a gamekeeper in a reserve created to keep wildlife undisturbed, and on the Brienz lake the communal rule below closes the gap anyway.

Which Hagelseewli you mean changes the second layer, not the answer

The confusion is genuine, so it is worth naming. The lake most people have seen is the one in the commune of Brienz at 2'339 m, a short walk north-east of the Bachalpsee on the Grindelwald First to Faulhorn circuit. The second, in the commune of Meiringen at 2'416 m, lies about 4 kilometres further east. Both are called Hagelseewli, both are in canton Bern, both are inside the reserve.

The communal layer is where they differ. Brienz replaced its 1967 camping regulation with a police regulation in December 2014, and that text is unusually explicit for Swiss communal law:

"Campieren: jede Form des Übernachtens ausserhalb dafür vorgesehener Bauten. Dazu zählen das Übernachten in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Wohnmobilen, Autos sowie das Biwakieren."Gemeindepolizeireglement Brienz of 11 December 2014, Art. 4 lit. c. The definition names bivouacking as camping. Art. 5 para. 1 then forbids camping in public space, and Art. 4 lit. a defines public space to include forest and pasture under Art. 699 of the Civil Code.

That is the rare case where the wording gap does not exist: Brienz has decided that a bivouac is camping, and its public-space definition reaches the alpine pasture the lake sits in. Art. 19 para. 1 lets the commune fine a breach of Art. 5 with up to CHF 5'000.² Note that the commune's own service page states the ban more broadly than the regulation does, as covering the whole municipal area; the regulation itself is limited to public space, which at 2'339 m is a distinction without a practical difference.

Meiringen is thinner but not empty, and this is where our own first pass was wrong. Its Ortspolizeireglement, in force since 1 January 2009, does mention camping exactly once, in Art. 25, and only to say that anyone providing private land for camping commercially needs a building permit. But the commune has a second instrument: the Parkplatzreglement Reichenbachtal of 26 November 2012, in force since 1 May 2013, whose Art. 5 reads "Im Reichenbachtal gilt ein allgemeines Campingverbot", a general camping ban for the Reichenbachtal, with a fine up to CHF 2'000 under Art. 15 Abs. 1.³

Two honest limits on that. Its Art. 2 defines Campieren as staying and overnighting "in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Motorhomes, Mobilheimen oder ähnlichen Unterkünften", every item a shelter or a vehicle, so it does not reach a tentless bivouac. And "Im Reichenbachtal" is not defined anywhere in the text, so whether it reaches a lake at 2'416 m on the valley's flank is genuinely unsettled. Either way the federal reserve already covers the lake, so nothing turns on it here.

Where the reserve boundary actually runs

The useful question at a spot like this is always whether the perimeter is close enough to walk out of. Here it is close, and it still does not help. Measured outward by bearing, the reserve edge is 559 metres south-south-west of the Brienz lake, at bearing 199 degrees, and 2'549 metres south of the Meiringen lake. Every other direction runs deeper in.⁴

The catch is what you walk into. The Grindelwald commune boundary comes first, at 197 metres from the Brienz lake and 291 metres from the Meiringen one, so you leave the reserve only after you have already entered a commune that bans tents outside licensed campsites through its Camping-Reglement Art. 9, fine up to CHF 1'000 under Art. 53 Abs. 3.⁷ And at the same 197 metres you reach the edge of the Moorlandschaft Bachsee, with a federal Flachmoor beyond it at 600 metres. There is no version of this walk that ends somewhere you may pitch a tent.

For completeness, the checks that came back empty at both lakes: no wildlife rest zone, no mire or floodplain object at the pin itself, no amphibian site, no park of national importance. The Brienz lake lies inside the BLN landscape inventory object Giessbach, which binds authorities performing federal tasks and does not create an offence for an individual walker.⁴ Note also that Bern has no camping ordinance of its own, but its wildlife-protection ordinance does ban "freies/wildes Campieren und Biwakieren" in 28 named areas. None of them covers either lake, and the Schwarzhorn entry was deleted in 2018. It matters anyway, because it shows that when Bern means to catch a bivouac it writes the word.¹⁰

Where you can legally sleep

There is no consent route here. A landowner cannot license what federal law forbids, and the exception in the ordinance is a cantonal decision, not a private one. In principle the canton of Bern could permit exceptions under Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e, and Brienz could grant one on application under Art. 5 para. 2 of its police regulation, but neither is a realistic path for a single hiker who wants one night out. Both are aimed at organised, applied-for uses.

• Berghotel Faulhorn, 2'681 m, the classic on this circuit, roughly an hour from the Brienz lake, summer season, reservation expected⁵.
• Berggasthaus First at the cable-car top station, and the mountain inns on the Grindelwald side, if the Faulhorn is full.
• Brienz valley campsites, all three inside the same commune and all lawful: Camping Aaregg, Camping Seebucht, Camping Seegaertli².
• Meiringen and Hasliberg campsites for the eastern lake, down in the Haslital.

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which at either Hagelseewli means nowhere. Carry it to the places where you are: it is not legal text, but decency and common sense, and it is the reason the few remaining tolerances still exist.

• 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 July 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.

Reserve perimeters, communal regulations and enforcement practice change. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself 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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