Wild camping in Hasliberg

Wild camping in Hasliberg: a terrace of villages, and alps up to Obwalden

Wild camping in Hasliberg is a question about the commune of Hasliberg BE, on the terrace above Meiringen in the Haslital, with its four villages Hohfluh, Wasserwendi, Goldern and Reuti. Above them the farmed slope and the forest give way to the alps of the Mägisalp, Käserstatt and Balisalp, and the commune ends on the crest from the Hohsträss over the Glogghüs, 2'534 m, to the Balmeregghorn. That crest is the border with Obwalden: the Melchsee, the Blausee and the Tannensee on the far side lie in Kerns OW.¹

A night here is realistically spent on the open alp above the trees, between the Mägisalp, the Hohsträss and the Balmeregghorn, below the crest and away from the lift stations. The villages, the forest belt, the lift and restaurant stations and the crest itself are no places for a tent, whatever the law says. Three places on the alp work, and they are set out below with their coordinates.¹

On that ground the answer is yes. No federal, cantonal or communal rule forbids one night there, and nobody has to be asked. The bans that do bind on Hasliberg ground cover four small moor reserves and a communal reserve at Bidmi, all down in the belt between about 1'400 and 1'800 m. The commune boundary is on map.geo.admin.ch.⁵⁶

Nothing forbids a night on the open alp, level by level

Federal: no game reserve, no landscape inventory, no park. No federal game reserve, no BLN landscape object, no mire landscape, no park and no military ground lies on Hasliberg ground. The federal raised bogs, fens, amphibian sites and dry meadows that do lie here bind the authorities, and the building regulation leaves them to their own legislation; none carries a camping rule for visitors. Pitch off them anyway, because a tent on a bog is what their protection is there to prevent.¹⁴

The six wildlife rest zones are communal, lie in the forest and are aimed at winter. Gibel, Gruebiwald, Mägisalpwald-Käserstatt, Hohflue, Gummenwald and Chingstuel rest on Art. 54 of the Hasliberg building regulation. Their protection time is the lifts' operating hours, with an entry ban for lift users, and Art. 54 tells the lift operators to keep winter users out of them. They lie in the forest belt below every place on this page: when you walk through the trees, stay on the path.¹⁴

Cantonal: Bern has no general camping rule. The canton bans a night outside zone by zone, through its nature reserves and through the wildlife protection areas of its wildlife ordinance, WTSchV. None of those wildlife areas lies on Hasliberg ground; the nearest, Junzlen, lies 739 m outside the commune. The forest act governs access to the forest and says nothing about tents.²

Communal: Hasliberg has no rule to break. Its published collection holds no police regulation, no camping regulation and no fixed-penalty regulation. The building regulation zones a campsite at Goldern, and the visitor's tax falls on each night of a paying guest; a bivouac has no host. The ski-area plan, the Überbauungsordnung "Schneesportgebiet Hasliberg", deals with pistes, snowmaking and rest areas and has no camping rule.³⁴

The courts and the landowners: nothing published. The cantonal gazette, searchable for roughly the last six months, lists no judicial prohibition naming Hasliberg. The weekly Anzeiger Oberhasli is the commune's official gazette, and its 2026 issues are not online, so a ban by an alp corporation published only there cannot be ruled out. Swiss civil law opens pasture to everyone for access, which is not a right to stay the night: the owner's sign on the ground still counts. How the levels fit together in the canton: the Bern overview and the national overview.⁷

The exception: four moor reserves and the Bidmi reserve

Four cantonal nature reserves on Hasliberg ground ban the night by name. The Bernese government created them on 18 December 2002, and three of them, the Höhenschwandmoor, Hinder der Egg and the Däntschwäldli, carry the same list of prohibitions:⁵

"das Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen und anderen Unterständen sowie das Lagern" · "das Biwakieren im Freien"Schutzbeschlüsse RRB 4401, 4402 and 4404 of 18 December 2002, Ziff. 4 lit. e and f. In English: the pitching of tents, caravans and other shelters, and camping out; bivouacking in the open.

The wording catches a bivvy bag as well as a tent. Lit. e names tents and other shelters, lit. f bivouacking in the open, so there is no tentless way round it. Lit. d bans fires, and in each reserve's core, Zone A, even entering is banned. The decrees punish breaches with "Busse oder Haft"; the cantonal nature protection act, NSchG Art. 57 para. 1, sets the frame at CHF 100 to 50'000, a range for a court and not a fixed ticket.⁵

The fourth, Triglisegg, is closed to walkers altogether. Its decree bans entering the whole reserve. At Bidmi the commune protects its own fen: the reserve plan bans tents, caravans and other shelters, fires, and any entry from the end of the ski season to 1 September.⁶

Where they lie. All five are small and sit in the alp and forest belt, well below the three places on this page: the Däntschwäldli at 1'520 m, north of the alp road from Hohfluh to Balisalp; the Höhenschwandmoor between 1'560 and 1'630 m, west of the road from Wasserwendi to Balisalp; Triglisegg between 1'620 and 1'680 m, south of the Balisalp; Hinder der Egg between 1'740 and 1'770 m, south of the ski lift and the same road; and Bidmi at the lift station of that name, around 1'420 m. Each of the three places lies more than a kilometre from the nearest of them.⁵⁶¹

Three places for the night, with coordinates

A. Balmeregghorn, the cirque below the north-west side of the summit, 2'143 m. WGS84 46.75289 / 8.27956 (LV95 2'664'251 / 1'178'311), 302 m west of the summit and 112 m below it. Grass between scattered boulders, at about 8 degrees, with enough flat ground for a bivvy or a small tent; 80 m to the south the ground rises into a cliff band, with the Horizontweg along its foot, and a boulder field lies to the north-west. The hiking path passes 88 m away, the top station of the Balmeregghorn ski lift stands 274 m away on the Obwalden side, and the cantonal border runs 153 m north. It is the highest and most exposed of the three. No water: the nearest stream is 293 m away, so carry it up. Place A on the map.¹⁴

B. Hohsträss, the open slope below the top of the Hochsträss chairlift, 2'041 m. WGS84 46.75918 / 8.23224 (LV95 2'660'629 / 1'178'973), an even grassy bench, grazed, and flat enough for a tent. In winter this is the Käserstatt-Hochsträss ski run, and a snowmaking hydrant stands in view: a place for a summer night only. The chairlift is 160 m away, the path 77 m, the nearest buildings 457 m, a stream 107 m, and the Obwalden border above Lungern 250 m. Place B on the map.¹⁴

C. Mägisalp, the upper grass flat below Hääggen, 1'912 m. WGS84 46.75136 / 8.25514 (LV95 2'662'387 / 1'178'121), the flattest and most sheltered of the three: an even grass plain at about 3 degrees, with a dry, stone-lined stream bed 46 m to the south. Be clear about what it is. It lies at the upper edge of the trees, with single spruces and scrub on its rims, although the national forest map shows no forest on it, and it is grazed alp: when the herd is on it, choose A or B instead. The alp buildings of Hindertschuggi and Hääggen are 330 to 365 m away, the Mägisalp-Hääggen lift 491 m, the hiking path 209 m. Place C on the map.¹⁴

All three lie on open, unforested agricultural land, outside every reserve and off the federal moor objects. Each also lies on an alp's ground, so if a sign at the alp says otherwise, the sign wins.⁴⁷

Where not: villages, forest, lift stations and the crest

• Hohfluh, Wasserwendi, Goldern and Reuti, and the slope down to Meiringen and the Brünig: no. Farmed and wooded ground below the trees, in sight of houses. For a tent down there, use the campsite zone at Goldern.⁴
• The forest belt: no. Gibel, Gruebiwald, Mägisalpwald-Käserstatt, Hohflue, Gummenwald and Chingstuel lie below the tree line and are, during the lifts' operating hours, communal wildlife rest zones.¹
• The lift and restaurant stations: no. The Mägisalp with its alp hamlet and Berghaus, Käserstatt, Bidmi, Planplatten with the Alpen Tower, Hääggen, the top of the Hochsträss, Twing and Reuti are buildings, machinery and paths.¹
• The moor reserves: no. Höhenschwandmoor, Hinder der Egg and Däntschwäldli ban tents and bivouacs, Triglisegg bans entry, Bidmi bans tents.⁵⁶
• The flat at Oberarni: not recommended. Grazed and flat, but wet, and inside a perimeter for fens of regional importance.⁴
• The crest, from Planplatten to the Balmeregghorn and the Glogghüs: no. Cliff, karst sinkholes and path, with nothing flat to lie on.¹
• The Engstlensee: no. The lake east of the commune lies in Innertkirchen, inside a cantonal nature reserve, and the valley's tourism office says plainly that camping and bivouacking are not allowed there: wild camping at the Engstlensee.⁹

How to do it right

One quiet night, then gone. Come up towards evening, pitch on the open alp at one of the three places or on ground like them, away from the reserves, the lift stations and the paths, and strike early. No fire: the reserves ban it, and on the alp a stove is enough.⁵

The owner's word on the ground goes. No law in Bern makes a night on alp pasture depend on the owner's consent, so nobody has to be asked. By the account of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, the alps up here are held in common, and the owners of the three places are not named in the public cadastre. A sign at the alp that says no camping is the owner's call, and it wins.⁷

And the honest caveat, because one valley over it already happened. Above Gadmen, the Bäuertgemeinde Gadmen published a camping ban for all its land in the Anzeiger Oberhasli on 19 June 2026 and put up a board on the path, and that changed the answer at the Gadenlouwisee without any public law changing. The same paper is Hasliberg's official gazette, and its issues are not online. If you find such a board, the board wins. The same caveat stands one valley south, at the Wannisbortsee.⁷

Mind the cattle. All three places are summer grazing. Keep your distance from the herd, close every gate behind you, and keep a dog on the lead.

Over the crest: the signposted zone at Balmeregg

If you want a spot that somebody has marked for tents, go over the crest into Obwalden. At the valley station of the Balmeregg lift on Melchsee-Frutt, in Kerns, around LV95 2'664'060 / 1'180'140, WGS84 46.76936 / 8.27731, 1'900 m, the landowner side has signposted a zone where one night is allowed, with a public toilet at the station and quiet from 22.00. It lies about 1.8 km north of place A, down the line of the Balmeregghorn ski lift.⁸

The law over there is a different one. Obwalden's camping act, GDB 971.4 Art. 8, allows one night in a tent without a permit if no public or private interests are impaired, and elsewhere on the Frutt the leaflet asks for the landowner's consent, through the alp administration, 041 666 31 00. On 26 March 2026 the cantonal parliament accepted a postulate that asks to review the one-night rule; no bill had been published by 2 October 2026. The whole Obwalden side: wild camping in Kerns.⁸

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which in Hasliberg means one night on the open alp above the trees. The law gives you the night, so the rest is on you: this is grazed alp ground below a crest that walkers cross all summer, and it stays open only as long as nobody leaves a trace.

• 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.

Legal here means a checked absence of prohibition at federal, cantonal and communal level, not a permission anyone granted. Two things could change it. A ban by an alp corporation or Bäuert published only in the Anzeiger Oberhasli, Hasliberg's official gazette, cannot be ruled out, because that paper's issues are not online, and the cantonal gazette shows court orders only for roughly the last six months. And the owners of the three places are not named in the public cadastre; nobody at the alps, the commune or the canton was asked. Every distance and coordinate is taken from official geodata, as accurate as the data and not as a marker on the ground. The verdicts are for the snow-free season. 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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