As of: 12 September 2026

Wild camping at the Mattenalpsee

The Mattenalpsee is the reservoir at the head of the Ürbachtal that the Gaulihütte path skirts, dammed since 1950 and operated over a 21-metre band. No federal, cantonal or communal rule reaches a night on its shore, and this article says where it looked. What limits the night is the place: a drawdown zone, a glacier delta that is a federal floodplain object, a bog on the west shelf, and a ten-degree meadow.

Leon Helg
Leon Helg · Legal situation checked in September 2026 · Published 12 September 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.

No norm reaches a night here, and here is where we looked

Wild camping at the Mattenalpsee is a yes by absence, which in this series is the harder kind of yes to publish: it is only worth anything if every place a ban could hide was opened. Three levels, in order.

Federal. The lake sits in BLN object 1507, the Berner Hochalpen, which binds authorities when they plan and permit and gives a walker no rule. Every other federal layer is empty at the water and on the east shore, with both controls passing: no game reserve, no wildlife rest zone within ten kilometres, no mire, no park. One federal object does touch the basin: floodplain object 1206 "Gauligletscher", a glacier forefield of national importance, covers the outwash flats at the head of the lake but not the lake or its shores. The Auenverordnung addresses the cantons, contains no word about tents, and Bern implements this object as a planning perimeter rather than a reserve. So a tent on the delta breaks no norm. It sits on exactly the ground the inventory exists to protect, which is why this article steers you off it rather than telling you it is fine.12

Cantonal. Bern has no camping or bivouac rule of general application, which this series established in the Haslital and did not need to re-derive. The Bernese instrument that does ban camping, area by area, is the Wildschutzgebiet under the Wildtierschutzverordnung. The Oberhasli holds two, Grimsel no. 13 and Kunzentännlen-Hinterstock no. 26, and neither carries a camping or bivouac measure; both lie about five kilometres from the lake anyway. The cantonal nature reserves with a tent ban are the ones to know on the way in.3

"das Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen und anderen Unterständen"Volkswirtschaftsdirektion des Kantons Bern, Schutzbeschluss Naturschutzgebiet "Urbachtal", NSG-Nr. 249, 2013, Ziffer 4 lit. e, among the prohibited acts: putting up tents, caravans and other shelters. Ziffer 12: breaches are fined.

That reserve is the valley floor along the Ürbachwasser from Vordertal to the bridge at the end of the Urbachallmeind, 4.4 kilometres down-valley and 800 metres below the lake, the flats the marked path crosses on the walk in. No tent on the Sandey flats, dogs on the lead, no fires near trees. The other reserve with the same kind of ban, Grimsel no. 5, lies five kilometres south across the ridge. The cadastre lists cantonal nature reserves as not concerned for both parcels at the lake, with a same-day positive control on a KWO parcel that does list one.34

Communal. Innertkirchen publishes 35 reglements and none of them is a police, fines or camping reglement; the collection has not changed since this series last read it on 3 September. Its Baureglement, approved on 4 June 2026, has one overlay at the lake, art. 59 Hochgebirgsschutz, a planning clause about buildings and interventions in which "nicht erwünscht" is not a prohibition and no camping verb appears. Art. 58, which bans campsites, motorhomes and caravans in the landscape protection area Sandey / Rohrmatten / Gauli, begins 433 metres north of the pin, below the dam, and bans facilities, not a tent. Art. 66 protects the Träjen wetland on the west shelf. The cantonal gazette holds no judicial prohibition for Innertkirchen.4

A reservoir, a delta and a bog: whose ground, and what it does

The lake is a working reservoir. The Mattenalp dam, a 25-metre gravity and earth wall with a 141-metre crest at the north-east corner, has held the Ürbachwasser since 1950; full supply is 1'875.2 metres and the reservoir is operated over a 21-metre band down to about 1'854. The whole outflow is taken at the dam for the Handeck II plant under a concession that runs to 2042, so the bed below carries spill only, and the marked path to the Gaulihütte crosses the dam crest. The federal elevation model was flown at a low stand, 1'863 metres, so a pitch at the waterline you see may be under water by morning. KWO publishes its reservoir levels every fifteen minutes and warns that streams in its catchment can rise suddenly "auch bei schönem Wetter".15

Whose ground. The alp around the lake, parcel 76, 16.3 square kilometres, is the Gaulialp of the Bäuertgemeinde Grund Innertkirchen, a private-law corporation of the old Innertkirchen farmers that lists it in its own Nutzungsreglement of 2021 together with the Mattenalp hut parcel at the outlet; the alp is leased with the Sandey and stocked in summer. The lake, the dam and the inflow flats form a separate 40-hectare parcel that the Bäuert does not list and the building inventory files as KWO's dam: the reservoir parcel, by all appearances KWO's, though the Bernese land register is not public and we say "by all appearances". Neither owner publishes a camping rule, a board or a fee. Since no norm conditions the night, asking is a courtesy call, not a required consent: that is the difference between this chip and "it depends".45

Why the courtesy call is worth making anyway. One valley east, at the Gadenlouwisee, a board put up by the Bäuertgemeinde Gadmen in June 2026 turned a clean legal absence into a landowner's no, which this series grades "not allowed". The Bäuertgemeinde Grund has nothing of the kind on its site or in its reglements, but a Bäuert resolution would be published in the Anzeiger Oberhasli, which we cannot read, and nobody has walked this shore for us. Contact: Bäuertgemeinde Grund Innertkirchen, Understockstrasse 12, 3862 Innertkirchen, through the form on its website, Ressort Alp / Landwirtschaft. For the dam, the intake and the level: Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG, Grimselstrasse 19, 3862 Innertkirchen. The Alp Gauli tenant is not named anywhere public.5

Two things on the horizon. KWO's Handeck 4 project will, once it starts, turn the Mattenalp into a helicopter-served construction site for two and a half years; the start was postponed in 2023 and is being recalculated. And the Bäuert won a case against the canton in 2023 over 40 square kilometres of glacier and rock above the alp, which the state had claimed as land unfit for cultivation; an appeal was expected and its outcome is not in any source we could read. It concerns the high ground, not the pasture, and changes nothing about the night.5

Where the dry ground is, and where it is not

Do not navigate to the published coordinates. The gazetteer pin, LV95 2'660'910 / 1'164'634, is a label anchor a hundred metres out on the water. Around it, on a 25-metre grid with the lake masked by its mapped outline, the basin sorts itself into four kinds of ground.16

  • West shore: rock walls and ledges below Träjenwang, 20 to 30 degrees and steeper, with the Gaulihütte path threading along them. Not a pitch.
  • North end: the dam, the intake and the Mattenalp huts at Siderenhubel, about 90 metres off the water and in sight of front doors, on 13 to 20 degree ground. Not a pitch.
  • West shelf at Träjen, 170 metres above the lake: a few level cells in hummocky ground, and all of it federal raised bog no. 567 and fen no. 247 and the communal wetland F 10. Out.
  • The delta at the head of the lake: the flattest ground anywhere near, 0.3 to 3 degrees at 1'876 to 1'884 metres, a braided plain of grey sand and gravel with the Chammlibach and the Ürbachwasser splitting across it, 1 to 9 metres above full supply and wet whenever the glacier melts hard. Every one of those cells tests inside floodplain object 1206. Pitchable in a dry September, and exactly what the inventory protects. Not the place.26

Two dry candidates remain. The first is the grass bank on the western edge of the outwash at the head of the lake, 2'660'660 / 1'164'359, 1'884 metres, 2.2 degrees, a strip of pasture between the alp slope and the sand, 16 metres from the mapped shoreline, nine metres above full supply and 70 metres outside the floodplain object; it lies on the reservoir parcel, and the braided streams run past it, so it is a fair-weather pitch with the glacier upstream. The second is the east-shore meadow of Alp Gouwli, the Hindri Matten: broad grass from the waterline up to 2'000 metres with the alp path along it, best cell 2'661'235 / 1'164'759 at 1'893 metres and about ten degrees, 63 metres above the full-supply shore, on the Bäuert's alp with cows in summer. A 25-metre grid smooths the small terraces such a meadow has, so a level patch for one bivvy bag probably exists; it will not be a lawn. The south-east corner between the two, seven to ten degrees at 1'874 to 1'882 metres, is outwash at the waterline and wet at full supply.6

Access and the walk in. From the Mürvorsess car park at 880 metres at the end of the toll-free Ürbachtal road, about a thousand metres of ascent and three and three-quarter hours by the signpost, T3, through beech and larch forest to Schrätteren, across the Sandey flats, which are the Urbachtal nature reserve with its tent ban, and up the step to the junction at P. 1850, then along the lake to the dam. The Gaulihütte SAC, 2'205 metres, is 1.5 kilometres beyond and 340 metres higher, staffed in season, +41 33 971 31 66. No SchweizMobil route touches the lake; the paths are local. The basin sits above closed forest, with green alder on the south-east shore and open alp pasture, rock and outwash at the water.367

  • On the grass bank at the head of the lake or the east-shore meadow, late, small, no fire, gone at dawn, above the full-supply line and off the delta. Nobody's permission is required; a word with the Bäuert or the alp tenant is the decent thing on a working alp.56
  • The Gaulihütte SAC, 2'205 metres, 1.5 kilometres on, +41 33 971 31 66, the bookable answer for anyone who looks at the delta and thinks again.7
  • Camping Grimselblick in Innertkirchen, the Bäuert's own campsite in the village, zoned as such under the commune's Baureglement.45
  • Not on the Sandey flats on the walk in, which are nature reserve Urbachtal with a tent ban; not on the delta inside floodplain object 1206; not on the Träjen bog; and not below 1'875 metres, which is the lake when it is full.

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which here is the shore above full supply. It is not legal text, it is decency and common sense, and beside a glacier delta that is a national floodplain object, on a stocked alp, it matters more than usual.

  • 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 September 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.

This verdict rests on an absence: no rule was found, and the places one could hide are named. Two things could change it. A no-camping board from the Bäuertgemeinde Grund, of the kind its neighbour in Gadmen posted in 2026, would make this a landowner's no; and the reservoir is operated by KWO, whose level, flushing dates and the Handeck 4 construction site can close the shore without any law changing. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, check the reservoir level and the fire warning, 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.

Frequently asked questions

Is wild camping allowed at the Mattenalpsee?
Nothing forbids one night. Every federal inventory that fines a camper is empty at the lake, canton Bern has no general camping rule and neither Oberhasli Wildschutzgebiet carries one, the nearest cantonal reserve with a tent ban is Urbachtal no. 249, 4.4 km down-valley, and Innertkirchen has no police or camping reglement. The limits are physical: a reservoir operated over 21 m, a glacier delta inside federal floodplain object 1206, and a bog on the west shelf.
Where is the dry ground at the Mattenalpsee?
A grass bank at the head of the lake and the east-shore meadow. The bank at 2'660'660 / 1'164'359 is 2.2 degrees at 1'884 m, nine metres above full supply and 70 m outside the floodplain object; the Alp Gouwli meadow on the east shore is about ten degrees at its best around 2'661'235 / 1'164'759. The flat sand and gravel of the delta is inside floodplain object 1206 and the west shelf at Träjen is a raised bog.
Who owns the ground around the Mattenalpsee?
The Bäuertgemeinde Grund Innertkirchen owns the alp; the lake parcel is the reservoir's. The Bäuert's own Nutzungsreglement of 2021 lists the Gaulialp and the Mattenalp; the 40-hectare parcel holding the lake, the dam and the inflow flats is not on that list and by all appearances is Kraftwerke Oberhasli's. Neither publishes a camping rule, so a call is a courtesy, not a consent the law requires.
Can I camp on the Sandey flats on the way up to the Mattenalpsee?
No. The valley floor along the Ürbachwasser from Vordertal to the Urbachallmeind is cantonal nature reserve Urbachtal, no. 249, whose Schutzbeschluss of 2013 prohibits putting up tents, caravans and other shelters, orders dogs on the lead and bans fires near trees, and fines breaches. It ends 4.4 km below the lake.
Why is the map pin for the Mattenalpsee in the water?
Because it is a gazetteer label anchor at the lake's centre, a hundred metres from the nearest shore, and the elevation model shows the lake at 1'863 m, a low stand twelve metres below the full-supply level of 1'875.2 m. Everything between those two heights inside the lake outline is drawdown zone: dry on the survey date, under water when the reservoir is full.
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. Official federal geodata and the national gazetteer, queried 12 September 2026. "See Mattenalpsee", LV95 2'660'910 / 1'164'634, WGS84 46.63018 / 8.23402, commune Innertkirchen BE (swissBOUNDARIES3D filtered to the current year), nearest other commune Guttannen 1.67 km north-east. Identify at the pin, at the delta cell 2'660'485 / 1'164'234 and at the east cell 2'661'235 / 1'164'759 with tolerance 0: BLN 1507 "Berner Hochalpen und Aletsch-Bietschhorn-Gebiet (nördlicher Teil)", sub-area Nordtäler, at all three; Auen object 1206 at the delta cell only; no hit anywhere on the federal game reserves, wildlife rest zone portal, parks, mires (Träjen raised bog no. 567 and fen no. 247 hit 437 to 480 m west of the pin), moor landscapes, amphibian sites, dry meadows, bird reserves, Ramsar, Emerald, forest reserves, Pro Natura reserves, guardian-dog pastures or the military Sachplan; no SchweizMobil route within 2 km. Wildlife rest zone portal, 15 km sweep: 14 zones, 7 of them canton Bern, nearest Hasliberg Gummenwald 10.5 km. Dam register ch.bfe.stauanlagen-bundesaufsicht at 2'661'030 / 1'164'960, 346 m north-north-east of the pin: "Mattenalp", Gewichtsmauer, height 25.0 m, crest 1'877.5 m, crest length 141 m, in operation since 1950, impoundment 1.85 million m3, full supply 1'875.2 m, storage band 21.2 m. Water abstraction register BE-140 at the dam: Urbachwasser to Handeck II, concession to 2042, residual flow 0.0 l/s in every month. Height service and profile grid: 1'863.0 m on the water plane. Controls in every run: ch.bafu.this-layer-does-not-exist surfaced as HTTP 400, the positive control at 2'626'000 / 1'154'500 returned game reserve Kiental. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  2. Auenverordnung, SR 451.31, consolidated 1 November 2017, Anhang 1 entry "1206 Gauligletscher Innertkirchen 2001 2017"; federal object sheet: type Gletschervorfeld, 570.37 ha, coordinates 2'658'870 / 1'162'620. Art. 4 para. 1 (objects to be preserved undiminished, natural dynamics of water and bedload, geomorphological character), art. 5 para. 1 ("Die Kantone treffen ... die zur Erhaltung der Objekte geeigneten Schutz- und Unterhaltsmassnahmen"), art. 7 para. 1 (interim measures against buildings and substantial changes of use); zero occurrences of Zelt, campier or betret in the ordinance, control "Auengebiet" 4. Geometry: the lake outline intersects the object over 0.0 ha, the pin lies 303 m from its edge on bearing 190, the delta cells at 1'876 to 1'884 m test inside, the grass bank at 2'660'660 / 1'164'359 tests outside by 70 m. Canton Bern implements the object as "Sachplan Biodiversität: Umsetzungsperimeter Auengebiete von nationaler Bedeutung (AU_1)", shown in the cadastre as additional information with the note that the Sachplan is only indirectly binding on owners; both lake parcels list cantonal nature reserves as not concerned. NHG SR 451 art. 24 punishes destroying or seriously damaging a protected biotope. Auenverordnung, fedlex. ↩
  3. Canton Bern. No camping or bivouac norm of general application: established in this series for the Haslital (Gadenlouwisee, Triftbrücke, Wannisbortsee) by full-text scans with controls of NSchG BSG 426.11, NSchV 426.111, JWG 922.11 and the Ordnungsbussen-Einführungsgesetz 324.1, not re-derived. Wildtierschutzverordnung WTSchV BSG 922.63 with annexes from the belex API, Anhang 1 as of 1 August 2024 and Anhang 2 as of 1 December 2024: Wildraum 18 holds Grimsel (no. 13, categories A, E, F: hunting ban, dogs on lead, no drones) and Kunzentännlen-Hinterstock (no. 26, C, E, F), neither with a camping or bivouac measure, perimeters read off the annex maps about 4.9 km south (Bächlistock, Hienderstock ridge) and 5.5 km east-south-east; the sentence "Freies/wildes Campieren und Biwakieren sind verboten" stands on 28 of the 87 area sheets, none in the Oberhasli. Schutzbeschluss Naturschutzgebiet "Urbachtal", NSG-Nr. 249, Volkswirtschaftsdirektion, 2013, on the basis of the Auenverordnung art. 3 and 5 and NSchG art. 14 and 36: Ziffer 1 places the floodplain along the Urbachwasser "vom Vordertal bis zur Brücke am Ende der Urbachallmeind" under state protection; Ziffer 3 names parcels 95, 99 and 100 in part and the plan of 25 March 2013; Ziffer 4 lit. e "das Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen und anderen Unterständen", lit. i dogs on the lead, lit. j no fires near trees and shrubs; Ziffer 12 "Widerhandlungen gegen diesen Beschluss werden mit Busse bestraft"; the plan grid places the reserve 4.4 to 6.4 km north-north-west of the lake and about 800 m below it. Naturschutzgebiet Grimsel, NSG-Nr. 5, with its "Kampieren und das Aufschlagen von Zelten" ban, about 5 km south, worked through for the Wannisbortsee. WTSchV with annexes, belex. ↩
  4. Commune of Innertkirchen and the cadastre. Reglement collection on innertkirchen.ch rendered on 12 September 2026 with "Alle" selected: 35 entries, no Polizeireglement, no Ordnungsbussenreglement, no Camping-Reglement, unchanged since 3 September 2026. Baureglement Innertkirchen (Überführung BauR Gadmen, Anpassungen BMBV), 71 pages, dated 20 December 2024, approved 4 June 2026, read from the cadastre copy with controls: art. 58 para. 3 bans in the landscape protection areas, among other things, "Campingplätze, Wohnmobile und Wohnwagen", para. 4 naming "1 LSG Sandey / Rohrmattten / Gauli", whose polygon begins 433 m north of the pin below the dam; art. 59 Hochgebirgsschutz, para. 1 "Das Hochgebirgsschutzgebiet umfasst grossräumig das Hochgebirgsmassiv welches in seiner Gesamtheit zu erhalten ist", para. 2 "Eingriffe aller Art, welche dem Schutzzwecke widersprechen sind nicht erwünscht", with reservations for alp, forestry, public-interest and energy buildings, huts and the Rosenegg landing site, para. 4 lit. b "das Massiv südlich und östlich bzw. oberhalb des Urbachtales"; art. 60 applies the Auenverordnung to the Sandey perimeter only; art. 66 protects the wetlands, F 10 Träjen among them; art. 445 Campingzone C for the village campsite; art. 71 para. 2 fines breaches of building rules at up to CHF 1'000. ÖREB cadastre canton Bern: parcel 85 (EGRID CH473513994626, 40.0 ha: the lake, the dam and the inflow flats), 16 restrictions, 14 Surface, 1 Line, 1 Point, none unparsed, at the pin Land- und Alpwirtschaftszone, Hochgebirgsschutz, Gewässerschutzbereich üB, Planungszone Zweitwohnungen, Gefahrenhinweis; parcel 76 (CH394613993597, 16.31 km2, wraps the lake), 72 restrictions, 70 Surface, 1 Line, 2 Point, the same set at the east cell; both list Kantonale Naturschutzgebiete, Grundwasserschutzzonen and -areale, Waldreservate as not concerned, positive control on KWO parcel 73 in Guttannen, which lists Grimsel NSG-Nr. 5. The grass bank at 2'660'660 / 1'164'359 lies on parcel 85, the east cell on parcel 76. Cantonal gazette API, keyword Innertkirchen and rubric GB-BE: 0 against a rubric total of 556 and a keyword total of 1'238. Reglemente, innertkirchen.ch · oereb2.apps.be.ch. ↩
  5. Owners and operator. Bäuertgemeinde Grund Innertkirchen, Nutzungsreglement adopted by the Versammlung on 23 July 2021, in force 1 January 2022: "Die Alp Gauli wird zusammen mit der Sandey verpachtet"; the annex lists parcels "76 Gaulialp Innertkirchen" and "1581 Mattenalp Innertkirchen"; its Organisationsreglement defines the Bäuert as a private-law corporation under art. 20 EG ZGB; neither reglement nor the website carries any camping, tent, bivouac or overnight term (the one "Camping" is the parcel name "Stapfen (Camping)", the Bäuert's Camping Grimselblick). Address Understockstrasse 12, 3862 Innertkirchen, contact form on the website, a Beisitzer for Alp / Landwirtschaft on the board. Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG, Grimselstrasse 19, 3862 Innertkirchen; its pages on the Mattenalpsee ("vor allem ein Speicherbecken mit einem Nutzinhalt von zwei Millionen Kubikmeter Wasser", "auf 1875 Meter über Meer"), the Mattenalp dam (1950, 25 m, 141 m) and Handeck 4 ("wird seit 1950 gestaut", "Der Zugang zum Mattenalpsee ist hingegen nur zu Fuss oder per Helikopter möglich", start "noch offen") publish no access ban, no user rules and no camping rule; its safety page warns that water levels in its catchment "können ... jederzeit stark ändern und kurzfristig anschwellen, auch bei schönem Wetter"; live levels under "Aktuelle Seefüllstände". Bauinventar Innertkirchen: "Stauwehranlage Mattenalp", 1947 to 1950, gravity and earth wall of 25 m and 141 m, erhaltenswert. The 2023 judgment of the Regionalgericht Berner Oberland awarding about 40 km2 of high ground around the Gauligletscher to the Bäuert against the canton, on the basis of its resolution of 13 July 1865, was reported by seniorweb.ch on 29 July 2023 with an appeal expected; its outcome could not be established. Gadenlouwisee board precedent: this series, 2026-06. bäuert-grund.ch · grimselstrom.ch. ↩
  6. Terrain, 12 September 2026. swissALTI3D via the federal profile service on two 25 m grids, 1.1 km and 600 m boxes around the pin, water masked with the OpenStreetMap outline of the lake (way 34583619, 18.08 ha, the pin inside it 99.6 m from the nearest shore); unmasked, 111 cells share exactly 1'863.0 m, the water plane on the survey date, and the south-western half of the outline reads 1'864 to 1'876 m, drawdown zone. Dry cells: grass bank 2'660'660 / 1'164'359, 1'884.0 m, 2.2 degrees, 16 m from the outline, 70 m outside floodplain object 1206, parcel 85; delta cells 2'660'485 / 1'164'234 (0.3 degrees, 1'884 m), 2'660'485 / 1'164'259 (2.8), 2'660'535 / 1'164'309 (2.9, 1'876 m), 2'660'635 / 1'164'284 (0.9, 1'874 m), all inside object 1206 and 1 to 9 m above full supply; east-shore meadow best cell 2'661'235 / 1'164'759, 1'892.7 m, 10.1 degrees, 63 m above the full-supply shore, parcel 76, with 11 to 14 degree cells around it; south-east corner cells 7 to 10 degrees at 1'874 to 1'882 m, outwash at the waterline; west shelf at Träjen 2'660'485 / 1'164'734, 1.7 degrees, 2'036 m, inside raised bog 567, fen 247 and communal wetland F 10; west shore 20 to 30 degrees; north end 13 to 20 degrees with the Mattenalp huts Nr. 390 and 391 at 1'869 m about 90 m off the water. Orthophoto read at the head of the lake: braided grey outwash with the Chammlibach and Ürbachwasser splitting across it, a grass strip on its western edge, alder scrub on the south-east shore, closed forest ending 1.5 km down-valley around 1'650 to 1'900 m. profile.json, api3.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  7. Access, hut and colour, read 12 September 2026. Gaulihütte SAC, Sektion Bern, "im oberen Urbachtal über dem Mattenalpsee auf einer Höhe von 2.205 m ü. M.", coordinates 46.623745 / 8.216584, hut phone +41 33 971 31 66, info@gaulihuette.ch; its approach text: "im Urbach folgt man dem markierten Wanderweg durch das einsame Urbachtal bis zur Holzfadghirmi (Punkt 1850). Ab hier dem Wegweiser Mattenalpsee folgen. Bei der Staumauer südwestlich dem markierten Weg folgen bis zur Gaulihütte." Car park Mürvorsess, 880 m, gazetteer 2'658'754 / 1'169'346, signpost 3 h 50 to the lake per a 2013 hikr report, T3; Haslital Tourismus route "Gaulihütte" (outdooractive 23431948): "Der links abzweigende Weg führt via Mattenalpsee zur Gaulihütte", 5:43 h, 11.3 km, 1'575 m up, no mention of camping, tents, bivouac, rest zones, dogs or drones; Grimselwelt site search for Mattenalpsee, Urbachtal, Gauli and Biwak returns nothing. hikr.org, 21 reports tagged Mattenalpsee to 30 August 2026, three opened: no account of a tent or bivouac at the lake. Camping Grimselblick, Innertkirchen, the Bäuert's campsite. Colour, not norms. gaulihuette.ch. ↩