Wild camping at the Kreuzberge: nothing forbids it, and you still cannot
This is the unusual case, and the answer is still no. Every level comes back clean: no federal rule, no cantonal rule, and a commune whose 26 published acts contain no camping provision at all. What stops you is the thing the name describes. The point people mean measures 58 degrees.
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.
The law is clean here, which in this massif is worth saying twice
Most Alpstein answers are some flavour of no, and most of those noes are legal. This one is not, so it is worth walking down the levels.
Federal law. At LV95 2'749'838.9 / 1'234'045.1 identify returns exactly one object: BLN 1612 "Säntisgebiet", the federal landscape inventory. That inventory binds federal and cantonal authorities in planning decisions. It carries no penalty for someone with a rucksack, so it is context and not a rule. Everything else is empty: no federal game reserve, no wildlife rest zone, no mire landscape, no bog, no floodplain, no dry meadow, no park of national importance, no forest reserve. The invalid-layer control errors rather than answering empty, and a positive control point inside a known game reserve returns it, so those zeros are real.1
And the two things readers expect to be here are not. The federal game reserve Säntis is an Appenzell object and its perimeter stops short of this rim; the layer returns nothing at this point. And Appenzell Innerrhoden's line on wild camping in the Alpstein has no effect here, because this is canton St. Gallen, commune Sennwald. That is a government's and a landowner's position for Innerrhoden ground and it does not cross the cantonal border.1
The canton. St. Gallen simply never legislated on camping. The Übertretungsstrafgesetz, which is where a cantonal fixed penalty would live, contains no camping term at all. The Polizeigesetz mentions overnight guests only in its hotel-registration article. The nature protection ordinance, the hunting act and both forest acts are silent, and the building act mentions camping only as a zoning category and in its permit-exemption list.3
The commune. Sennwald has no Polizeireglement, and all 26 acts in its published collection were read: the Baureglement is silent on camping across 47'000 characters, and the only occurrences of "lagern" in the whole corpus are the storage of substances in the waste and water regulations.4
Sennwald does ban tents, in two kinds of zone
The protection ordinance is the one document with real teeth, and it has two relevant articles:
- Art. 10 para. 4, habitat protection zones for threatened and rare animal species: "Insbesondere verboten sind: das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen und Zelten ausserhalb von dafür bestimmten Plätzen, das Entfachen von Feuer ausserhalb von dafür bestimmten Feuerstellen".
- Art. 11 para. 2, nature reserves, which here means the mapped wetlands, dry and poor grassland sites and restoration areas: the prohibited list includes "das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen und Zelten sowie das Campieren und Lagern", and also riding and unauthorised access off marked roads and paths.
Neither reaches this ridge. The official cadastre extract for the parcel that holds the point covers 4.9 km² and carries exactly three restrictions from that ordinance: a buffer zone 2'398 m away and two wet nature reserves at 1'745 m and 2'355 m. No habitat protection zone appears anywhere on that parcel. At the point itself the only entries are "übriges Gemeindegebiet" and a noise sensitivity level.25
Worth keeping straight: there are nature reserves on this parcel, they are simply far away. The claim here is a distance, not an absence.5
The ground, which is the whole reason for the answer
The Kreuzberge are a wall. The chain is a row of limestone towers on the eastern edge of the Alpstein, running from roughly 1'884 to 2'065 m, and the SAC guide to the massif lists close to 110 climbing routes on them. That is what the name means to most of the people who use it.7
Measured rather than described: the gazetteer point reads 57.9 degrees at 1'909.1 m. Over an 800 by 800 metre box on a 25 metre grid, elevations run from 1'426.3 to 2'052.8 m and the median slope is 40.7 degrees. There is no version of this in which you pitch on the ridge.6
Where the flat ground is, and why it is not the answer either
The grid does find flat ground, and all of it is below and west, on the Roslenalp:
- 2.6 degrees at 1'815 m, 291 m from the pin and 312 m from the nearest registered building. This is the best of them.
- 3.0 degrees at 1'755 m, 226 m from the pin, but 77 m from the Roslenalp buildings.
- 5.4 degrees at 1'752 m, 59 m from those same buildings.
The last two are the alp's own yard. The Gasthaus Roslenalp is 302 m from the pin, one of four registered buildings between 302 and 339 m, and the Underalp buildings sit 721 m off. So the honest picture is a working alp with an inn on it, under a climbing wall, with a marked path 271 m away.67
That is why this article says not allowed rather than legal. Nothing prohibits a night here, and there is nowhere to spend one that is not either vertical or somebody's alp.
What to do instead
The Roslenalp is the obvious answer. The Gasthaus is 302 m from the towers and 15 to 45 minutes from the climbing, which is exactly why generations of climbers have used it. If you came for the Kreuzberge, this is the bed the place is built around.7
Berggasthaus Bollenwees at the Fählensee is the other classic, further into the massif, and the Staubern cable car from Frümsen shortens the approach from the Rhine valley side if you would rather walk in over the Saxer Lücke.7
If you specifically want to be outside, keep the finding and move the pin. The legal picture on this eastern rim of the Alpstein is genuinely clean, and there is ground here that is both lawful and flat: the saddles behind the Roslenfirst, out on the open crest at just over 2'000 m, away from the alp buildings and away from the reserve polygons. What you are looking for is height, distance from the alp and no protection zone underfoot, and this side of the massif has all three in places the towers do not.
One thing to get right if you do stay out here
The Waldreservat Gufere begins 970 m from the pin and a dry-meadow inventory object, the Saxer Heuberge, 960 m. Neither bans camping, and both are the kind of ground where a tent does visible damage. Between them and the two nature reserves at 1'745 and 2'355 m, the rule of thumb on this rim is: stay on the crest and off anything that looks like meadow somebody is managing.15
General rules for wild camping
This rim is one of the few Alpstein places nobody has had to write a rule about yet, and it is surrounded by places where somebody did:
- 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 is a statement about terrain. The legal check came back clean at every level and is reported as such; if the ground were different this would be a green verdict, and if Sennwald or the canton legislates it will need rechecking.
The verdict describes the gazetteer point for the Kreuzberge at LV95 2'749'838.9 / 1'234'045.1, 1'909 m. The chain is about two kilometres long and the terrain figures are the median of an 800 by 800 metre box around that point, not a survey of every col on it.
Frequently asked questions
Is wild camping allowed at the Kreuzberge?
Does the Appenzell camping ban apply here?
Is there flat ground below the towers?
Where do climbers sleep?
Is there anywhere lawful and flat on this side of the Alpstein?
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.
Sources
- Official federal geodata, queried 3 September 2026 at LV95 2'749'838.9 / 1'234'045.1, terrain surface 1'909.1 m via the federal height service, commune Sennwald at the point from the current-year municipal boundary layer. Identify returns the landscape inventory object "Säntisgebiet", BLN object 1612, whose nearest boundary lies 662 m away, and empty results for federal game reserves, wildlife rest zones, raised bogs, fens, mire landscapes, floodplains, amphibian spawning sites, Ramsar sites, Emerald sites, parks of national importance, biosphere reserves and world natural heritage. Nearest other objects by ring distance: dry grassland "Saxer Heuberge" 960 m, forest reserve "Gufere" 970 m, fen "Oberhag/Müselen/Langriet" 2'963 m. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which returns HTTP 400 while all real layers return HTTP 200, and a positive control point inside federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental correctly returns that polygon. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Vorschriften zur Schutzverordnung der Gemeinde Sennwald, full text as published by the commune, read on 3 September 2026 with control terms confirmed. Art. 10 (Lebensraum-Schongebiete bedrohter und seltener Tierarten) para. 4: "Insbesondere verboten sind: das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen und Zelten ausserhalb von dafür bestimmten Plätzen, das Entfachen von Feuer ausserhalb von dafür bestimmten Feuerstellen; Freizeitaktivitäten im Luftraum. Modellflugbetrieb, Starten und Landen von Hängegleitern und Deltaseglern." Art. 11 (Naturschutzgebiete) para. 1 defines these as the wetlands, dry sites, poor grassland sites and restoration areas designated in the plan; para. 2 lists what is prohibited in them, including "das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen und Zelten sowie das Campieren und Lagern" and "das Reiten und unbefugte Betreten ausserhalb markierter Strassen und Wege". Art. 7 and art. 8 govern general and special landscape protection areas and contain no camping term. sennwald.ch. ↩
- Cantonal law of St. Gallen, read in full on 3 September 2026 through the official register's JSON interface, text lowercased before scanning and control terms confirmed in each act. Übertretungsstrafgesetz sGS 921.1: no camping term at all, so no cantonal fixed penalty exists. Polizeigesetz sGS 451.1: the only occurrences of "übernacht" are in art. 52bis, the hotel registration form for overnight guests. Naturschutzverordnung sGS 671.1, Jagdgesetz sGS 853.1, Einführungsgesetz zur eidgenössischen Waldgesetzgebung sGS 651.1 and its ordinance sGS 651.11: silent. Planungs- und Baugesetz sGS 731.1 names "Camping- und Zeltplätze" only among the facilities of an intensive-recreation zone and exempts mobile structures from a building permit for up to three months a year. gesetzessammlung.sg.ch. ↩
- Communal acts of Sennwald, complete collection on the cantonal publication platform, 26 acts downloaded and read on 3 September 2026 with per-file control counts recorded so a silent file is distinguishable from an unread one; most are published as scans and were optically recognised. There is no Polizeireglement in the collection. The Baureglement contains no camping provision across 47'189 characters with healthy control counts, and the only occurrences of "lagern" in the whole corpus are the storage of substances in the waste and water regulations. publikationen.sg.ch. ↩
- Cadastre of public-law restrictions on landownership (ÖREB) for canton St. Gallen, extract with geometry taken 3 September 2026 for EGRID CH927719396510, parcel 4365 in Sennwald, land register area 4'899'315 m², 83 restrictions. Geometry audit: 82 carry Surface geometry and every one was tested point-in-polygon at LV95 2'749'838.9 / 1'234'045.1, the remaining one being a Line, so no area restriction was skipped. Covering the point: "BauG übriges Gemeindegebiet allg" and noise sensitivity level III, nothing else. Restrictions from the communal protection ordinance present on the parcel: one "Uebergangsbereich (Pufferzone) UB" at 2'398 m and two "Naturschutzgebiet feucht A (unbeweidet)" at 1'745 m and 2'355 m; no Lebensraum-Schongebiet appears on the parcel at all. Further ring distances from the point: potential watercourse space 81 m, agricultural zone 104 m, forest indication 404 m, groundwater protection zone S3 622 m and S2 782 m, cantonal forest reserve Gufere 970 m. oereb.geo.sg.ch. ↩
- Terrain, queried 3 September 2026 through the federal elevation profile service on the 2 metre terrain model. A 25 metre grid over an 800 by 800 metre box centred on the gazetteer point returns elevations from 1'426.3 to 2'052.8 m with a median slope of 40.7 degrees; the point itself reads 57.9 degrees at 1'909.1 m. Flattest candidates with their distance to the nearest building from the federal register of buildings and dwellings: 2.6 degrees at 1'815.0 m, LV95 2'749'589 / 1'234'195, 291 m from the pin and 312 m from the nearest building; 3.0 degrees at 1'754.8 m, 226 m from the pin and 77 m from a building; 5.4 degrees at 1'752.3 m, 255 m from the pin and 59 m from a building. Registered buildings near the pin: four addressed Roslenalp, Sax, between 302 and 339 m, a fifth at 592 m, and three addressed Underalp between 721 and 732 m. Nearest marked hiking path 271 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩
- The place itself: the Chrüzberg or Kreuzberge is a chain of limestone towers on the eastern edge of the Alpstein in canton St. Gallen, running from about 1'884 to 2'065 m, and the Swiss Alpine Club's Alpstein climbing guide lists close to 110 routes on it. The Gasthaus Roslenalp stands at 1'767 m, 15 to 45 minutes from the climbing; the Berggasthaus Bollenwees sits at the Fählensee at 1'470 m; the Saxer Lücke is at 1'649 m and the Staubern cable car from Frümsen reaches 1'751 m. Distances measured from the gazetteer point: Roslenalp 64 m as an area name, Saxer First and Roslenfirst 619 m, Fählenalp 721 m, Fählensee 1'145 m. hikr.org. ↩