As of: 11 August 2026

Wild camping at the Hohtürli: which side of the crest you lie down on decides the law

Most of the spots we answer are decided by one rule over one piece of ground. This one is decided by two, and the line between them runs through the saddle you are standing on. Eight metres is the whole story.

Leon Helg
Leon Helg · Legal situation checked in August 2026 · Published 11 August 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.

Two rulebooks meet in the saddle, and the seam is eight metres wide

Wild camping at the Hohtürli cannot be answered with one rule, because the pass is not inside one jurisdiction. It is on the seam of two. Queried against the official federal geodata at the pass point, LV95 2'625'447 / 1'151'144, the picture is unusually sharp: bisected step by step, the boundary of federal game reserve no. 3, Kiental, lies 8 metres north of the pin, and the boundary between the communes of Kandersteg and Reichenbach im Kandertal lies 12 metres north of it.5

Sampled on rings at 30, 60, 100, 150, 200 and 300 metres, the split is consistent all the way round: everything from roughly north through east is inside the reserve and in Reichenbach, everything from south-east through west is outside the reserve and in Kandersteg. The crest is the line, and the Blüemlisalphütte sits on the Kandersteg side of it.

North of the crest: a federal prohibition with no bivouac exception

Inside a federal game reserve the rule is the same everywhere in Switzerland and it is short.3

"Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze. Die Kantone können Ausnahmen bewilligen."Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e VEJ: free tenting and camping is prohibited. The use of official campsites is reserved. The cantons may grant exceptions.

Two things about that sentence matter here. First, it names both tenting and camping, and the Italian version of the same provision is blunter still: "è vietato piantare tende o campeggiare", it is forbidden to pitch tents or to camp. There is no carve-out for a tentless bivouac anywhere in it. Second, the only body that can permit anything else is the canton, not a hut warden, not an alp tenant, not the commune.

There is a trap in this article worth naming, because the Kiental reserve is a "Gebiet mit partiellen Schutzbestimmungen", an area under partial protection rules, and that sounds like it should soften things. It does not. The partial-protection escape clause sits inside lit. d, which is about carrying weapons and traps. Lit. e, the camping one, carries no such qualifier at all. The federal objectsheet for the reserve confirms the partial rules apply to the whole 8'392 hectares, and the camping prohibition is unqualified across every one of them.5

South of the crest: the commune bans the tent and exempts the bivouac

On the Kandersteg side the operative instrument is the Gemeindepolizeireglement, approved at the ballot box on 13 December 2020 by 294 votes to 53 and in force since 1 January 2021. Its art. 7 para. 1 is one sentence.1

"Das Campieren ausserhalb der speziell dafür vorgesehenen und bewilligten Flächen ist nicht gestattet."Art. 7 para. 1: camping outside the areas specially provided and authorised for it is not permitted.

Note what that sentence does not say. It does not limit itself to public space, so it reaches private ground as well, which is why asking a landowner is not a route in this commune. But the answer to whether it catches you is not in art. 7 at all. It is in art. 6, where the reglement defines its own terms.

"Campieren: jede Form des Übernachtens oder vorübergehenden Verweilens in Zelten, Wohnwagen, Wohnmobilen, Autos oder ähnlichen Unterkünften. Das blosse Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen, usw., zum Campieren fällt ebenfalls unter den Begriff des Campierens. Nicht darunter fällt das Übernachten im Freien ohne Zelt, im Iglu oder in einer Schneehöhle (Biwakieren)."Art. 6 lit. c: camping means any form of overnighting or temporarily staying in tents, caravans, campers, cars or similar shelters. Merely erecting tents, caravans and so on for the purpose of camping also falls under the term. Overnighting in the open without a tent, in an igloo or in a snow cave (bivouacking) does not.

So Kandersteg answered the question most Swiss communes leave hanging. A tent is camping and is banned. A night in the open without a tent is expressly not camping, and art. 7 does not reach it. That is the same drafting choice the commune of Vals made, and the opposite of the one Brienz made, where the bivouac was written expressly into the ban.

And there is a second route on this side, which the reserve does not offer: art. 7 para. 2, "Die Gemeinde kann Ausnahmen auf Gesuch hin bewilligen", the commune may grant exceptions on application. If you want a tent at 2'778 metres, there is an address for asking.

CHF 150 on one side, CHF 200 on the other

Both prohibitions carry a real price, and the numbers come from two different levels of government.

Inside the reserve it is CHF 150, and it is a fixed penalty, meaning a slip rather than a proceeding. The federal Fixed Penalties Ordinance lists it by name at no. 12005: "Freies Zelten oder Campieren in eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebieten", with the citation chain running back to art. 5 para. 1 lit. e of the game reserve ordinance. That citation chain is itself the federal government's statement that this prohibition is meant to be enforced on the spot.4

In Kandersteg it is CHF 200. Art. 26 para. 1 of the police reglement sets fines up to CHF 5'000 and para. 2 names "Art. 7 Campingverbot" first in its list of the articles it has in mind. The implementing Gemeindepolizeiverordnung, in force the same day, then tariffs it precisely.2

"Bussenliste für Verstösse gegen Art. im GPR · a. Art. 7 Campingverbot · 200.00"Art. 8 para. 3 lit. a of the Gemeindepolizeiverordnung: the tariff for a breach of the camping prohibition is CHF 200.

Two riders on the communal side. Art. 7 para. 3 lets the Gemeinderat order the site restored and do it at your cost if you refuse, which is the part that gets expensive. And art. 26 para. 4 allows a warning instead of a fine in light cases, which is the discretion that exists in practice at altitude.

What does not exist at either level is a cantonal rule. Canton Bern's Gesetz über Jagd und Wildtierschutz and its Naturschutzgesetz were both read in full for this article, and neither contains a single occurrence of tenting, camping, bivouacking or overnighting. So the canton adds nothing, and, importantly, has not used the power art. 5 para. 1 lit. e gives it to grant an exception inside the reserve.7

What the maps say, and where the ground is actually flat

Beyond the reserve, the pass sits inside BLN object 1507, "Berner Hochalpen und Aletsch-Bietschhorn-Gebiet (nördlicher Teil)", the federal inventory of landscapes of national importance. That is worth knowing and it is not a camping rule: the BLN binds federal and cantonal authorities in their own planning decisions, and carries no fine for a person sleeping out. Every other federal layer comes back empty at the pin, and there is no wildlife rest zone within 3 kilometres. Each query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which the service answers with HTTP 400 while the real layers answered 200, so the empty results are genuine rather than a broken request.5

The nearest floodplain of national importance is the Gamchigletscher, 1.5 km east, which is inside the reserve anyway and therefore already covered by the stricter rule.

The terrain agrees with the law, which is not always how this goes

Usually the awkward part of these articles is that the lawful ground is also the useless ground. Here it is the other way round. Sampled along profiles from the pass on the federal elevation model, the flat ground is on the Kandersteg side.6

Due south the terrain barely moves: the profile runs 300 metres at a mean of 0.6 degrees and is still at about 2'775 m at the far end. The flattest samples come in at 1.2 degrees 51 metres south-south-west at 2'757 m and 0.6 degrees 154 metres due south at 2'785 m. Both were checked individually against the reserve layer and both are outside it.

North and north-east of the crest, by contrast, the mountain falls away hard: 22.9 degrees mean on the northern radial and 37.4 degrees on the north-eastern one, dropping 229 metres in 300. Nobody was going to sleep there in any case. It is a rare case where the federal prohibition and the contour lines want the same thing.

One more thing the map settles: the entire eastern descent stays inside the reserve. Oberi Bundalp at 2.5 km, the Gspaltenhornhütte at 3.1 km and Griesalp at 4.1 km are all in Reichenbach im Kandertal and all inside game reserve no. 3. So walking down towards the Kiental does not get you out from under the federal rule, it keeps you under it for the rest of the day.5

The clean version, and it needs no paperwork. Stay on the southern, Kandersteg side of the crest, sleep without a tent, one night, and neither prohibition reaches you. The commune wrote the tentless night out of its own definition of camping, and the federal reserve, which has no such exception, begins on the other side of the saddle. This is the whole reason the verdict here is "it depends" rather than a flat no: there is a real, locatable, lawful way to do it, on ground that is genuinely flat.16

If you want a tent, ask the commune, and only the commune. Art. 7 para. 2 of the police reglement lets the Gemeinde Kandersteg grant exceptions on application. That is the only door on the southern side, because the ban is not limited to public ground and a landowner cannot hand you what the reglement has already withdrawn. Ask before you travel, say one night and roughly where. On the northern side no such request exists: only the canton can permit anything inside the reserve, and Bern has not.

The obvious answer is 150 metres away. The Blüemlisalphütte of the Swiss Alpine Club stands at 2'834 m just south-east of the pass, on the Kandersteg side and outside the reserve. It is the reason most people are up here at all, it is serviced in season, and at this altitude in bad weather it is not merely the legal option but the sensible one. Book ahead: it fills, and arriving at 2'778 m to a full hut with no plan is a different kind of problem.8

If you want a tent and no paperwork, go down. The Camping Rendez-vous in the Kandersteg valley, 6.7 km away at about 1'227 m, is open year-round and is the one place in this commune where a tent is lawful without asking anyone, because it is exactly the "speziell dafür vorgesehene und bewilligte Fläche" art. 7 has in mind. The Fründenhütte is 3.75 km away at 2'560 m on the same side of the crest, and the Gspaltenhornhütte is 3.1 km east at 2'456 m, though that one is inside the reserve.8

Two spots on this same route are already answered on this site and both are worth reading before you go. The Oeschinensee, 3.6 km west, is in this same commune and is genuinely forbidden, because a court order there additionally catches the tentless bivouac that art. 6 lit. c leaves alone everywhere else in Kandersteg. And the Rote Härd sits in the same federal reserve, under the same art. 5 para. 1 lit. e and the same CHF 150.

Ground rules on top of the law. No fire at 2'778 m, and a gas stove is the answer everywhere on this site. Keep clear of the hut's own terrain and its water supply. Leave before the day walkers arrive: the Hohtürli is a busy crossing in season, and a bivouac that nobody has to walk around is the one nobody objects to.

General rules for wild camping

This applies on both sides of the crest, and the fire rule is not negotiable at this altitude in dry conditions: use a gas stove, never an open fire, and carry everything out.

  • 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.

Reserve perimeters are redrawn and communal reglements change, so check the current version before relying on any of this, and follow instructions on site. The boundary distances given here are measured against the official federal geodata and are metres, not certainties: at that scale a GPS reading is not a legal opinion, and if you are within a few metres of the line the honest move is to walk further south. The terrain figures describe the ground and are not a safety assessment of your route. 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.

Frequently asked questions

Can you wild camp at the Hohtürli?
A tent is prohibited on both sides of the pass, a tentless bivouac is lawful on the southern side. The saddle is a legal border: federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental begins 8 m north of the pass point and the commune boundary 12 m north of it. North of the crest, art. 5 para. 1 lit. e of the federal game reserve ordinance prohibits free tenting and camping with no bivouac exception, fixed penalty CHF 150. South of it, in Kandersteg, art. 7 of the communal police reglement bans camping outside designated places at CHF 200, but art. 6 lit. c of the same reglement expressly excludes sleeping outdoors without a tent from what counts as camping.
Which side of the pass is which?
North and east is the reserve and Reichenbach im Kandertal, south and west is Kandersteg. Sampled on rings at 30 to 300 m from the pass point, everything from roughly north through east comes back inside federal game reserve no. 3 and in the commune of Reichenbach im Kandertal, and everything from south-east through west comes back outside the reserve and in Kandersteg. The Blüemlisalphütte, 150 m south-east at 2834 m, is on the Kandersteg side and outside the reserve. The whole eastern descent stays inside the reserve: Oberi Bundalp at 2.5 km, the Gspaltenhornhütte at 3.1 km and Griesalp at 4.1 km are all inside it.
Does the partial protection of the Kiental reserve soften the camping rule?
No, and this is the most common misreading of the article. The Kiental reserve is classified as an area with partial protection rules, and art. 5 of the federal ordinance does contain a partial-protection escape clause, but it sits inside lit. d, which is about carrying, keeping and using weapons and traps. Lit. e, the camping prohibition, carries no such qualifier. The federal objectsheet for object no. 3 states that the partial rules apply to the whole area, all 8392 hectares of it, and the camping prohibition is unqualified across all of them.
How much is the fine?
CHF 150 inside the reserve, CHF 200 in Kandersteg. Inside the reserve it is a federal fixed penalty listed by name at no. 12005 of the Fixed Penalties Ordinance, which cites art. 5 para. 1 lit. e of the game reserve ordinance directly. In Kandersteg, art. 26 para. 1 of the police reglement allows fines up to CHF 5000 and names the camping prohibition first among the articles it has in mind, and the implementing ordinance of the same date tariffs it at CHF 200 in art. 8 para. 3 lit. a. Art. 7 para. 3 additionally lets the commune order the site restored at your cost, and art. 26 para. 4 allows a warning instead of a fine in light cases.
Where is the flat ground?
South of the pass, on the lawful side. Sampled on the federal elevation model, the profile due south of the pass runs 300 m at a mean of 0.6 degrees and is still around 2775 m at the far end. The flattest samples are 1.2 degrees 51 m south-south-west at 2757 m and 0.6 degrees 154 m due south at 2785 m, and both were checked individually against the reserve layer and lie outside it. North and north-east the mountain falls away at 22.9 and 37.4 degrees, dropping 229 m in 300 m on the north-eastern radial.
Why is the Oeschinensee forbidden if the Hohtürli is not?
Because a second instrument applies at the lake and not up here. Both are in the commune of Kandersteg, so art. 7 bans a tent at both and art. 6 lit. c exempts the tentless bivouac at both. The difference is that the Oeschinensee basin is additionally covered by a judicial prohibition under art. 258 of the Civil Procedure Code that names bivouacking explicitly, which is why sleeping out there is caught even without a tent. That order attaches to the lake, not to the commune, so it does not travel 3.6 km up to the pass.
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. Gemeindepolizeireglement der Einwohnergemeinde Kandersteg, approved by communal ballot on 13 December 2020 by 294 votes to 53 and in force since 1 January 2021. Art. 7 para. 1: "Das Campieren ausserhalb der speziell dafür vorgesehenen und bewilligten Flächen ist nicht gestattet." Art. 7 para. 2: "Die Gemeinde kann Ausnahmen auf Gesuch hin bewilligen." Art. 7 para. 3 allows the Gemeinderat to order restoration of the original condition and to carry it out at the cost of those concerned. Art. 6 lit. c defines camping and closes with "Nicht darunter fällt das Übernachten im Freien ohne Zelt, im Iglu oder in einer Schneehöhle (Biwakieren)." Art. 6 lit. a defines public space as the freely accessible part of the communal territory including forest and pasture under art. 699 of the Civil Code and public waters, though art. 7 is not limited to public space. Art. 26 para. 1 sets fines up to CHF 5'000 and para. 2 names "Art. 7 Campingverbot"; para. 4 allows a warning instead in light cases; para. 6 delegates the tariff to a Gemeinderat ordinance. Art. 28 struck art. 6 of the older Campingreglement, so art. 7 is the current communal camping ban. Text extracted from the enacted PDF. gemeindekandersteg.ch. ↩
  2. Gemeindepolizeiverordnung der Einwohnergemeinde Kandersteg, issued by the Gemeinderat under art. 26 para. 6 of the police reglement and in force since 1 January 2021. Art. 8 para. 3 sets the fine list for breaches of the reglement and its first entry reads "a. Art. 7 Campingverbot · 200.00". Art. 6 para. 3 sets a payment deadline of 30 days followed by a reminder at 20 days, after which the ordinary procedure is opened. Art. 3 names the bodies charged with enforcement: the cantonal police, the firm charged with stationary traffic, and communal police organs. Text extracted from the enacted PDF. gemeindekandersteg.ch. ↩
  3. Verordnung über die eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebiete (VEJ, SR 922.31), art. 5 para. 1 lit. e, consolidated version of 1 February 2025: "Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze. Die Kantone können Ausnahmen bewilligen." The French text of the same provision reads "il est interdit de camper librement" and the Italian "è vietato piantare tende o campeggiare". The partial-protection exception in art. 5 ("für Gebiete mit partiellem Schutz") belongs to lit. d, on carrying, keeping and using weapons and traps, and does not qualify lit. e. Text retrieved from the federal legal filestore. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩
  4. Ordnungsbussenverordnung (OBV, SR 314.11), annex 2, consolidated version of 1 August 2026, entry no. 12005: "Freies Zelten oder Campieren in eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebieten (Art. 18 Abs. 1 Bst. e und Abs. 3 JSG, Art. 5 Abs. 1 Bst. e VEJ)", CHF 150. The same entry appears in French as "Camper librement dans les districts francs fédéraux" and in Italian as "Piantare tende o campeggiare in bandite federali", each at CHF 150. Text retrieved from the federal legal filestore. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩
  5. Official federal geodata, queried 11 August 2026 at the pass point LV95 2'625'447 / 1'151'144 (WGS84 46.51112 / 7.77020), terrain surface 2778.1 m via the federal height service. The pass point itself returns commune Kandersteg and no game reserve. Identify sampled on rings at 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 and 800 m returns federal game reserve no. 3 "Kiental", 8'392.1 ha, type "Gebiet mit partiellen Schutzbestimmungen", on bearings from about 330 through 120 degrees, and commune Reichenbach im Kandertal on bearings from about 315 through 90 degrees; the remaining bearings return Kandersteg and no reserve. Bisected in 14 steps due north, the reserve boundary lies 8 m and the commune boundary 12 m from the pin. BLN object "Berner Hochalpen und Aletsch-Bietschhorn-Gebiet (nördlicher Teil)" covers the pin. Identify returns empty for wildlife rest zones out to 3'000 m, and for raised bogs, fens, mire landscapes and parks of national importance; the nearest floodplain of national importance is Gamchigletscher at about 1'500 m east. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id: that control returned HTTP 400 while all real layers returned HTTP 200. The federal objectsheet for object no. 3 states "Für das ganze Gebiet gelten die partiellen Schutzbestimmungen". map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  6. Terrain analysis from the official federal elevation model, queried 11 August 2026 through the federal profile service along 300 m radials from the pass point at 30 degree intervals, 60 samples each. Due south the profile ends at 2'775.0 m for a mean gradient of 0.6 degrees; at 210 degrees it ends at 2'760.9 m for 3.3 degrees. The flattest 25 m segments on the southern side are 1.2 degrees at 51 m on bearing 200 (2'757.0 m), 1.5 degrees at 45 m on bearing 220 (2'750.1 m), 0.6 degrees at 154 m due south (2'785.3 m) and 0.3 degrees at 212 m on bearing 220 (2'739.3 m); each of these was queried individually against the game reserve layer and returned outside it. Northward the terrain falls away: 22.9 degrees mean due north, 37.4 degrees at 30 degrees with a drop of 229.1 m over 300 m, 30.3 degrees at 270 degrees. geo.admin.ch. ↩
  7. Cantonal law of Bern, read in full on 11 August 2026 through the cantonal legal collection API. The Gesetz über Jagd und Wildtierschutz (BSG 922.11, 44'327 characters of body text) and the Naturschutzgesetz (BSG 426.11, 84'800 characters) each return zero occurrences of "Zelt", "campier", "biwak" and "übernacht". The canton therefore has no camping provision of its own that applies here, and has not exercised the power art. 5 para. 1 lit. e VEJ reserves to the cantons to permit camping inside a federal game reserve. belex.sites.be.ch. ↩
  8. Reference points from the swisstopo gazetteer, with distances measured from the pass point and each checked against the commune and game reserve layers: Blüemlisalphütte SAC 0.15 km at 2'834.2 m, commune Kandersteg, outside the reserve; Oberi Bundalp 2.51 km at 1'858.9 m, Reichenbach im Kandertal, inside the reserve; Gspaltenhornhütte SAC 3.08 km at 2'455.7 m, Reichenbach im Kandertal, inside the reserve; Oeschinensee 3.63 km at 1'574.9 m, Kandersteg, outside the reserve; Fründenhütte SAC 3.75 km at 2'559.7 m, Kandersteg, outside the reserve; Griesalp 4.12 km at 1'392.2 m, Reichenbach im Kandertal, inside the reserve; Campingplatzareal Rendez-vous 6.72 km at 1'226.7 m, Kandersteg, outside the reserve. Check hut opening dates and book before you travel. sac-cas.ch. ↩