Wild camping at the Madseeli: one of the few Swiss lakes where the answer is simply yes

The one norm that could catch you, and why it does not

Wild camping at the Madseeli turns on a reglement that is six months old. If you read anything published before 2026, including our own earlier note, you read about the wrong document.

Flums adopted a new Polizeireglement on 10 November 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, and its Art. 30 repeals the 2001 Gemeindepolizei-Reglement by name. The old one contained no camping provision at all. The new one does.

"Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ausserhalb von offiziellen Campingplätzen ist verboten."Polizeireglement der Politischen Gemeinde Flums of 10 November 2025, Art. 25, in force 1 January 2026. Breaches are punished under Art. 28, tariffed at CHF 80 in the cantonal fixed-penalty schedule.

Read alone that sounds decisive. It is not, because of where it sits. Art. 25 belongs to the reglement's chapter IV, and Art. 19 defines what that chapter governs: the commune's own parcels, its roads, paths, squares and buildings. "Öffentlicher Grund" here is not a synonym for "outdoors" or for "land anyone may walk on". It means ground the commune owns and administers.²

The Madseeli is not on it. The parcel at the lake belongs to the Ortsgemeinde Flums-Grossberg, alp parcel 3162, a separate corporation from the Politische Gemeinde that adopted the reglement. So the ban applies down in the village, on the Flumserberg roads and squares and on the communal parking, and it does not apply to an alp basin at 2'189 metres.

The bivouac question does not even arise here, because the norm does not reach the location at all. Worth noting for completeness that Art. 25's verb is Campieren without a definition, so if you were on communal ground the tentless case would be untested. At the lake it is moot.

The other two layers, and why the absence is a finding rather than a shrug

A "no rule found" is only worth something if you can say what you looked at. Here is what we looked at.

Canton St. Gallen. There is no cantonal wild-camping prohibition. We ran the cantonal law index (sGS) as full text rather than trusting a summary: Biwak zero hits, Biwakieren zero, Wildcampieren zero, Nächtigen zero, with two positive controls passing to prove the search itself worked. The cantonal police say the same thing in plainer words, that each commune regulates wild camping itself. The line that circulates online, "wildes Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten", is the city of St. Gallen's police reglement, roughly ninety kilometres away, and has nothing to do with Flums.⁴

The communal Schutzverordnung. This is the instrument that genuinely bans camping in Flums, and it is worth quoting because it is unusually broad:

"die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Freizeitzwecken, wie Lagern, Zelten, Campieren und das Anfachen von Feuer, ausser an den bezeichneten Stellen"Schutzverordnung der Gemeinde Flums, Art. 8 Abs. 1, list of prohibited activities in Naturschutzgebieten. Note the verb Lagern, which does reach a tentless bivouac, unlike almost every other norm in this series.

That one would catch you, tent or no tent. It applies only inside Naturschutzgebiete, and the Madseeli is not in one. The cantonal geoportal returns two overlays at the exact coordinates: a Lebensraum-Schongebiet under Art. 15, which prohibits road building, extraction and deposits and says nothing about camping, and a Geotopschutzgebiet under Art. 11, whose second paragraph expressly guarantees "die land-, alp-, forstwirtschaftliche und touristische Nutzung". The nearest actual Naturschutzgebiet is 3.7 km north-east.³

The federal layer. Nothing reaches the act. The nearest federal hunting-ban district, Chrauchtal, has its integral zone starting 820 metres away on bearing 206. The pin does sit inside the UNESCO world natural heritage site Tektonikarena Sardona, which sounds alarming and carries no conduct rule for a walker: it is a heritage listing, not a behaviour ordinance.¹

The two lines, and they are closer than you think

This is the section to actually read before you go, because a yes with a boundary 820 metres away deserves precision.

The crest is the line, not a radius. The Spitzmeilen summit sits 0.9 metres outside the Chrauchtal reserve and the Wissmeilenpass 0.5 metres outside. Thirty metres south of the summit you are inside the reserve, where VEJ Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e bans free tenting and camping and the Hunting Act backs it with fines to CHF 20'000, and you are also in canton Glarus, under Glarus Süd. Those margins are not a rounding error you can walk off casually. Stay north of the Spitzmeilen and Wissmeilen crest and none of it applies.¹

The reserve boundary to the south-south-west. 820 metres from the lake on bearing 206. Comfortable if you are camped at the water, not comfortable if you wander uphill looking for a better view at dusk.

The nature reserves to the north-east, 3.7 km away. Far enough to be irrelevant for a night at the lake, close enough to matter if you are traversing. That is where Lagern is banned outright.³

The lake itself: LV95 2'737'002 / 1'210'414, 2'189 m, alp grass and scree well above the treeline, in the Spitzmeilen group above Flumserberg.

Where you can legally sleep

Here, is the honest answer, which is not one we get to write often. There is nothing to ask for, nobody to phone, no permit, no booking, no fee and no season. Pitch on the alp grass by the lake, stay north of the crest, keep off any marked path, and treat the ground like the working alp it is.

• The lake itself, for one night, tent or bivvy bag².
• Spitzmeilenhütte, SAC, the obvious alternative if the weather turns, and the sensible base for the traverse.
• Campsites in the Seez valley, down in Flums and Walenstadt, if you want infrastructure.
• Not south of the crest. That is the federal reserve and a different canton.

General rules for wild camping

This matters more here than anywhere else in this series, because here you actually may. Spots stay legal for exactly as long as the people using them give nobody a reason to write a rule. Flums has not needed one at 2'189 metres. Keep it that way.

• 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.

The reading that Art. 25 of the new Flums police reglement does not reach the alp parcel rests on the reglement's own scoping article and on the parcel's ownership, and has not been tested. Communal regulations change, and this one changed in January. 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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