Wild camping around Leysin

A quiet night still needs an agreement

The condition is written into two laws. Vaud's Loi sur les campings et caravanings résidentiels, LCCR art. 27, covers occasional camping outside authorised grounds. It requires the assent of the landowner or, where relevant, the farmer or tenant. A stay exceeding four days also needs the commune's authorisation. The name of the act sounds like it concerns residential caravan sites, and much of it does, but this separate article concerns occasional camping. A single night is not exempt from its first condition.²

Leysin makes the distinction explicit in police art. 79. On public domain, camping and caravaning in every form are prohibited except on places designated by the municipality. On private domain, occasional camping is permitted with agreement from the proprietor, tenant, farmer or other possessor. The requirement for municipal authorisation starts when the stay exceeds four days. A one-night request therefore has a real consent route. A small hiking tent follows the same consent condition.¹

Public ownership is not the same thing as public domain. A commune can own pasture as private property, while a road or square is assigned to common public use. Leysin's own definitions make that distinction. The Chaux d'Aï parcel belongs to the commune, so ask the municipality to confirm the status of the exact ground and who currently possesses or leases it. Do not choose a road verge, a path, a lift platform or a public picnic area and assume the same consent clause applies there.¹⁴

Above the tree line, a short stay and an early departure are sensible conditions for a request, but none removes the need for agreement. The local text says camping in every form and does not define a planned bivvy bag separately. Ask expressly about the shelter you will use. A real unforeseen emergency is a different situation; it is not a permission to plan a night without an answer.¹²

The older blanket ban has a later exception

An older planning text says no camping outside the reserved zone. Article 67 of Leysin's old Règlement communal concernant le plan d'extension et la police des constructions prohibits camping and mobile habitation across the communal territory except in the zone reserved for those installations. Reading that sentence alone produces a blanket ban, including on somebody's pasture. It remains available in the public-property restriction catalogue because older planning rules still govern parts of the commune.³

The later police regulation of 2020 does two relevant things. Article 79 explicitly permits occasional camping on private domain with individual agreement. Article 155 repeals the earlier police regulation and every contrary provision enacted by the communal council or municipality. The older blanket wording cannot be read as silently erasing that later private-ground route. For a particular pasture night, use the newer occasional-camping condition, rather than a general claim that every part of Leysin is a campsite.¹³

The alpine tourist plan, in force from 2019, also has its own perimeter and protection zones. Its art. 27 replaces predecessor extension-plan provisions inside that perimeter, while art. 26 keeps compatible communal rules for matters it does not regulate. That matters here because the high mountain ground has its own planning regime. It does not cancel the police consent requirement, nature protection, water protection or conditions attached to a tenant's use of the alp. Agreement to one night is also not approval to establish a campsite or leave a permanent installation.³

Chaux d'Aï is the pitch to ask about

Chaux d'Aï, restricted: 46.36601 N, 6.99879 E, about 1'956 m, on the western side of the high pasture above Leysin. The point is a small grass shelf, not a summit or a lake. It lies on parcel 971, owned by the Commune de Leysin, and in the alpine tourist zone, about 426 m outside the mapped nature-protection zone. None of the federal game-reserve, wildlife-rest, wetland, dry-meadow, park, forest-reserve or military layers checked covers this exact pitch.⁴⁷

The usable part is quite small. The ground is level at the point and for a short strip beside it, while the surrounding slope is considerably steeper. Within about 30 m the median slope is about 12 degrees, and the mapped flat grass patch is roughly 244 square metres. A mineral maintenance strip crosses to the north-east. Keep a tent on the agreed dry grass and clear of that strip, machinery and livestock tracks. A flat-looking equipment pad farther uphill is not an alternative pitch. Carry water from below and leave space for stock to pass.⁷

Upper Mayen, discouraged as an overnight destination: 46.37020 N, 7.01625 E, about 1'973 m, above Lac de Mayen. This is a real grass shelf with enough flat ground, rather than the steep side of the basin. But it is inside the plan's protected nature zone and the binding Tour de Famelon wildlife rest zone. The rule prohibiting winter sports away from the indicated routes applies when snow is present. The protected zone is intended to keep threatened animals' habitat quiet; a flat shelf does not defeat that purpose.³⁵⁷

The off-route winter restriction depends on snow. Even in summer, I would leave this shelf to the animals and ask about Chaux d'Aï instead. Permission from an alp operator cannot cancel the winter route restriction or the obligation not to disturb wildlife. Around Mayen and Segray, broken limestone also hides deep holes: the destination's climbing information warns about this explicitly. Stay on the hiking routes for your daytime visit, keep a dog leashed and avoid exploring the karst in darkness.⁵⁸

How to ask the actual landholder

Start with the Commune de Leysin, the documented owner of parcel 971. The municipal clerk's office, Greffe municipal, is at Rue du Village 39, 1854 Leysin: greffe@leysin.ch, +41 24 493 45 40. Send the exact Chaux d'Aï coordinates and a marked map. Ask whether the point is part of the commune's private property, whether the current alp tenant must agree, and whether that precise night can be accepted. Ownership of the surrounding ski area or buildings is not a substitute for the owner of the grass you propose to use.⁴

Keep the request concrete: your date, the number of people, a small tent or bivvy bag, arrival near dusk, departure at dawn, no fire, all rubbish and toilet waste carried out. Ask for the actual place to use rather than permission to camp wherever you find a view. The owner may prefer another patch because the stock are moving, an area is being rested or work is under way. A clear answer with a location is useful; silence is not agreement. Keep the response with you.¹²⁴

For the police interpretation or domain status, contact municipal public safety at police@leysin.ch, +41 24 493 45 31. The family Chablaix runs the Refuge de Mayen, with the destination listing +41 79 715 23 70. They can help with current alp conditions around Mayen, but a restaurant operator is not automatically empowered to give permission throughout a protected area. The name Refuge also does not establish that beds are available there.⁴⁸

There is no published standing arrangement, standard camping charge or promise that any walker receives a yes. The outcome remains individual. If permission is refused, use accommodation in Leysin and visit the high pasture during the day. Buying lunch, using the chairlift or paying a tourist tax does not create a right to pitch a tent elsewhere. Ask early enough to change the plan before you leave the village.¹⁸¹⁰

Protect the water and the quiet habitat

Both shelves are in groundwater protection zone S3. The mountain's fissured limestone lets pollution enter the ground quickly. The water-protection regulations govern installations, land use and activities that threaten the supply. Their provision for camping grounds requires watertight wastewater connections; it concerns a campsite as an installation, not a standing right to put a mobile tent anywhere. A one-night request must still fit the protection of the water. Dig no latrine, pour out no washing water and spill no fuel. Carry toilet waste down.⁶

The reserve around the Tours d'Aï and Famelon comes from protection agreements involving Pro Natura Vaud, the commune and, on the northern side, the army. It includes limestone ridges, the lake basins and habitats where animals need quiet. The exact nature-zone boundary matters more than a general statement that Leysin has a nature reserve somewhere. At upper Mayen the protected zone is actually underfoot; at the proposed Chaux d'Aï shelf it is not. A daytime footpath through a reserve does not make its neighbouring grass an overnight plot.³⁵⁷

The cantonal wildlife regulation prohibits disturbing wild animals. The alpine plan also says animals must not be disturbed, pursued or drawn out of the quiet zone, and dogs must be leashed. When snow arrives, the mapped route restrictions apply even if your visit is outside a conventional winter holiday period. Do not leave a tent as a base for repeated excursions, play music or follow animals to photograph them. Keep lamps directed at your own ground and use the agreed pitch for the one night you asked for.³⁵

Where not: the village, lakes and lift grounds

Leysin village is not the overnight mountain pitch. Around 1'267 m, its streets, squares, car parks and public recreation grounds fall under the public-domain prohibition. The farmed meadows above the houses and wooded approaches are also somebody's working land. Take the hiking routes through them and keep a night on specifically agreed open pasture. A ski-resort name covers houses, roads, forest and alpine ground; the headline is not permission for every part of it.¹⁷

Lac d'Aï is a daytime destination with grazing cows, picnic stops and old alpine buildings beside it. The destination expressly prohibits swimming. Lac de Mayen and Lac Segray are equally poor places to solve an overnight plan by pitching against the water. Lake surfaces look perfectly flat in an elevation model, while shores can be wet, trampled and ecologically sensitive. Keep the tent away from the lakes, springs, cattle water and the alpine hamlets. The mountain restaurants and lift stations need clear working space.⁵⁷⁸

Place des Feuilles is not a tent fallback. The commune allows only motorhomes equipped with toilets on that designated place. It publishes a vehicle charge of CHF 10 per night plus tourist tax and requires compliance with its instructions. That arrangement cannot be borrowed by a pedestrian with a tent. Leysin also publishes temporary trail closures from 17 August to 16 October 2026. Check the current notices and the signs, and never cross a closed section to reach a proposed night stop.¹⁰

Controls are documented, a fixed camping ticket is not

Leysin's management report records checks around the communal territory to prevent wild camping in vehicles and tents. That is evidence of active attention, rather than proof that every permitted pasture night receives a fine. Carry your permission and leave if the landholder or an authority asks you to move. Avoid treating the absence of somebody on an evening path as a sign that the rule is not enforced.⁹

The municipal fine is decided in ordinary proceedings. Police art. 11 refers to the cantonal contraventions law. Under LContr art. 25, the municipal ceiling for an adult is CHF 500, rising to CHF 1'000 for repetition or a continuing offence; costs can be added. No fixed tariff for a camping offence at this pitch is published. These amounts are ceilings, not the expected price of a night. Separate damage, wildlife or water offences have their own consequences. An individual permission is the useful first step, and the place and conditions in it still matter.¹⁹

General rules for wild camping

Where a night is accepted, use only the agreed dry grass patch: a small shelter at dusk, gone at dawn, no fire and no trace. Stay clear of livestock, machinery and water, keep a dog leashed, pack out toilet waste and change the plan when snow or a closure makes the route unsuitable.

• 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, current to October 2026, based on the official and public sources below. It is not legal advice and is not a binding statement from an authority.

Municipal rules, protection boundaries, alp use, access and contact details may change. No individual camping permission has been obtained and no published standing arrangement or fee was found. The commune's ownership of parcel 971 is documented, but the precise domain classification and current tenant must be confirmed for the chosen patch. The two shelves were assessed from official aerial imagery, elevation data and the cadastre, without an on-site survey; only Chaux d'Aï is proposed for a permission request. The local text does not separately settle the planned bivvy-bag question. A genuine emergency is a different situation from a planned night. Before every trip, check the current sources yourself and follow instructions on the ground. You remain responsible for your conduct and its consequences. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH do not accept liability for decisions based on this text and do not invite anyone to breach 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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