Wild camping on the Mettelhorn
The Mettelhorn, 3'406 m, above the Trift north of Zermatt, is where Täsch and Zermatt meet, and both communes fine a pitched tent. Its top sits on the lip of the north face, with nowhere to lie down. The sunrise works from the Berggasthaus Trift and a start by headlamp.
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.
Wild camping on the Mettelhorn: the summit is the commune line
The Mettelhorn is a 3'406 m summit north of Zermatt, above the Trift. The federal gazetteer lists it as a main summit, at LV95 2'623'452 / 1'100'503. The trail from Zermatt climbs to the Berggasthaus Trift, turns north into the Triftchumme, crosses a remnant of glacier below the summit and finishes up a slope of rock and scree. Zermatt Tourism grades it T4 and calls it demanding.110
The summit is the boundary between Täsch and Zermatt. The north and west faces, on the side of the Hohlichtgletscher, are Täsch. The south and east faces and the approach from the Trift through the Triftchumme are Zermatt. The glacier remnant the trail crosses below the summit lies on the Täsch side.1
At the top the official data split by about a metre. swissBOUNDARIES3D puts the survey point on Täsch ground, and so do the canton's official survey lots, by 0.13 m; the canton's zoning plan puts it in Zermatt, by 1.22 m. The line is neither surveyed nor marked up there, and there is no parcel anywhere near the summit.1
Which side you stand on decides which regulation applies: under Valais law, a breach of communal law is judged by the criminal law of the commune where it happens. On the Mettelhorn both regulations end in the same place.5
Täsch: no tent anywhere on the communal territory
Täsch's police regulation was homologated by the Staatsrat on 11 February 1998, and on 12 October 2026 it is still the version on the commune's register. Its Art. 13, headed "Unerlaubtes Campieren", decides the north and west side:2
"Wer unerlaubt auf dem Gemeindegebiet, ausserhalb des offiziellen Campingplatzes, Zelte oder Wohnmobile aufstellt."Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Täsch, Art. 13. In English: whoever, without permission, puts up tents or motorhomes on the communal territory outside the official campsite.
The scope is the whole commune, not only public ground. The article does not ask who owns the slope, and the only place it excepts is the official campsite. The penalty is in Art. 2: "Haft oder Busse von Fr. 50.-- bis Fr. 5'000.--". Detention left Swiss criminal law in 2007, so what remains is a fine of CHF 50 to 5'000.2
Negligence is punishable too (Art. 1 Abs. 3). That reverses the cantonal default, which leaves negligent breaches of communal law unpunished unless the commune says otherwise. Not knowing which side of an unmarked line your tent stands on is no defence.25
"Unerlaubt" points to a permission nobody issues. No Täsch act says who would grant one, how or at what fee, and Art. 13 is the commune's only camping rule: unlike Zermatt's, the Täsch traffic regulation has no camping article. The rock up here is the commune's own public property, so the only party that could permit a tent is the commune that bans it.25
Zermatt: two bans, and the rock is public ground
Zermatt's police regulation was homologated on 26 January 2022 and applies to the whole commune, so to the south and east side of the summit and the approach from the Trift. Its Art. 43 reads:3
"Unter Campieren versteht man das vorübergehende Verweilen in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen mobilen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen. Das blosse Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen etc. fällt ebenfalls unter den Begriff des Campierens. Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten."Polizeireglement der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, Art. 43 Abs. 1 and 2. In English: camping means temporarily staying in tents, caravans or similar mobile and immobile installations; merely putting up tents or caravans also counts as camping; camping on public ground is prohibited.
So a tent is caught twice: a night in it is camping, and so is merely pitching it. Abs. 3 allows occasional camping away from campsites only with the landowner's consent, and on the Mettelhorn there is no private landowner. The Valais act implementing the civil code puts land that cannot be cultivated into the public property of the communes:35
"Die Gemeindestrassen, die nicht kultivierbaren Regionen, wie Felsen, Schutthalden, Schneefelder und Gletscher, Seen, alle Wasserläufe, ab demjenigen Punkt wo sie entspringen, fallen in das öffentliche Eigentum der Gemeinden."Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuch (EGZGB), RS/VS 211.1, Art. 163 Abs. 3. In English: communal roads, non-cultivable regions such as rock, scree, snowfields and glaciers, lakes and all watercourses fall into the public property of the communes.
Rock, scree, névé and glacier above 3'000 m are exactly that, and there is no surveyed parcel and no land-register title up here. The owner the consent clause points to is Zermatt itself, and the commune publishes no permit, form or fee for a tent on its public ground.51
The traffic regulation bans it a second time. Art. 37 of Zermatt's Verkehrsreglement, headed "Freies Campieren", says: "Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist untersagt. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze." Free tenting and camping are prohibited, official campsites excepted. Occasional camping on private ground needs the owner's written consent (Abs. 2), and breaches cost up to CHF 5'000 (Art. 53).4
Under the police regulation the fine runs from CHF 10 to 5'000 (Art. 49 Abs. 2), negligence included (Art. 49 Abs. 1), and the commune can charge the cost of an extraordinary police operation on top (Art. 52). It repeated the rule in a media release of 1 May 2026, under the heading "Hinweis: Wildcampieren in Zermatt verboten".37
A bivvy bag without a tent: a gap in the wording, closed by the ground
On Täsch ground the wording leaves a real gap. Art. 13 catches whoever puts up "Zelte oder Wohnmobile", tents or motorhomes. A bivvy bag with no poles is neither, so a tentless night on the Täsch side is not caught by that text. Zermatt's definition reaches further: "ähnliche mobile Einrichtungen", similar mobile installations, arguably includes a bivvy bag, and no court has ruled on it.23
The ground closes the gap. The summit sits on the lip of the north face. Within 30 m of the top the slopes average about 52 degrees, and within 40 m there is not a single patch of 4 by 4 m flatter than 20 degrees. Within 150 m the ground drops about 190 m to the south and about 130 m to the north.1
The flattest ground near the top is the glacier and névé on the normal route, about 260 m south-west and 150 m lower, on Täsch ground, and a rock island between two glaciers about 340 m west. Neither is a place to send anyone at night. The scree 450 to 600 m south is Zermatt ground, under Zermatt's ban.1
A personal account shows what a night up here takes. Alex Roddie writes that in July 2007 he and his brother dug a snow hole in the glacier below the summit and lay on a slope of about 45 degrees. When he came back in 2017, the glacier had become a steep icy slope, and without crampons he turned back.10
A genuine emergency bivouac is a rescue situation, not camping; a night planned for the sunrise is not an emergency.
What the canton and the Confederation add
Valais has no cantonal camping ban. Its building ordinance requires a permit for tents outside a campsite only when they stand for more than 3 weeks or number more than 12 (BauV Art. 17 Abs. 2 lit. a). One night is far from either.5
No federal or cantonal protected area adds a ban at the summit. It lies in no federal game reserve, so the federal tent ban for those reserves and its CHF 150 fixed fine do not apply. It lies in no wildlife rest zone, federal or cantonal, and in no object of the federal landscape inventory, and no cantonal nature reserve lies within 10 km.16
The south and east slopes, the scree of the normal route included, lie in the cantonal hunting reserve no. 58 "Mettelhorn", and the Triftchumme in no. 59 "Furgghorn": both ban hunting only, and neither carries a rule on visitors or tents.6
Who checks, and what it costs
Zermatt checks at night by drone. On the ground there is a communal ranger on foot, in post since 1 March 2025, and behind him the Regionalpolizei Zermatt, which covers Zermatt, Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen from one office: +41 27 966 22 22, regionalpolizei@zermatt.ch.7
There is no tariff. Neither police regulation has a price list: the frames are CHF 50 to 5'000 in Täsch, CHF 10 to 5'000 under Zermatt's police regulation and up to CHF 5'000 under its traffic regulation. The one franc figure from practice is CHF 200 per tent, which the Rhone Zeitung reported on 16 August 2019 for earlier interventions near the Hörnli and Monte Rosa huts. It is one reported figure, not a price.8234
How it is possible: the Trift, then a start by headlamp
What people want up here is the sunrise from the top. The way to get it is a bed at the Berggasthaus Trift, 2'337 m, about 2 hours on foot above Zermatt. It is the classic base for the Mettelhorn, and from the inn the summit is about three hours away.9
Berggasthaus Trift, 2'337 m, 3920 Zermatt, hosts Hugo and Fabienne Biner. Reservation by phone only, and it is mandatory: "no reservation, no overnight stay". +41 79 408 70 20. Half board CHF 99 per person in a room, CHF 84 in the dormitory, VAT included; no credit cards. Bring a sleeping-bag liner and a towel. The 2026 season ran from 27 June to 20 September, so the inn is closed now; the 2027 dates are not published yet.9
The light. The sun comes up behind the Mischabel ridge, so the first direct sun reaches the summit at about 6:30 in mid-July and about 7:15 on 1 September, summer time. Leave the Trift around 3:00 to 4:00 by headlamp: nearer 3:00 in July, about 4:00 in September.10
The glacier. Zermatt Tourism grades its Platthorn and Mettelhorn route T4, about 7 hours and 1'961 m of ascent from Zermatt, and warns that the trail crosses a part of the glacier below the summit: depending on its state, crampons or spikes are "absolutely necessary". Ask the Trift inn about current conditions when you book.10
The Rothornhütte SAC, at the head of the Trift valley, is on another route: from there the Mettelhorn means going back down to the Trift path and climbing again. The Zermatt campsite stayed closed in 2026.97
The same two communes meet on the Oberrothorn across the valley, with the same answer, and Zermatt's rules decide the Stellisee and the Breithorn. How the cantons compare: wild camping in Switzerland.
General rules for wild camping
There is no lawful night outside on the Mettelhorn. Take these rules to the places where there is one, and to the way up and down:
- 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 as of 12 October 2026, based on the official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.
The commune line follows the canton's official survey and swissBOUNDARIES3D; it is not marked on the ground, so treat both bans as applying on the whole summit. No court has decided whether a bivvy bag counts as camping under Zermatt's regulations. Seasons, prices and route conditions come from the operators, and the sunrise times are calculated: check them before you go and follow instructions on site. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and its consequences. 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 on the Mettelhorn?
Is the Mettelhorn summit in Täsch or in Zermatt?
Can I sleep on the summit in a bivvy bag without a tent?
Where do I sleep to see the sunrise from the Mettelhorn?
What does a tent on the Mettelhorn cost?
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
- Federal and cantonal geodata, read on 12 October 2026. swissNAMES3D: "Mettelhorn", main summit, LV95 2'623'451.8 / 1'100'502.9, WGS84 46.05565 / 7.74166, terrain height 3'405.2 m, map height 3'406 m. Commune line: swissBOUNDARIES3D (current year) puts the point in Täsch, with Täsch to the north and west and Zermatt to the south and east. Canton of Valais, official survey: the point lies in the unsurveyed lot "Täsch 6", 0.13 m from the lot "Zermatt 10"; the canton's layer of the communal zoning plans puts it in Zermatt's "Übriges Gemeindegebiet", 1.22 m from the Täsch zone. No boundary points within 300 m; no parcel and no EGRID at the summit, on the névé or on the scree. Terrain from swissALTI3D (2 m, 2024): median slope 51.8 degrees within 30 m of the point; no patch of 4 by 4 m under 20 degrees within 40 m; the ground falls 193 m within 150 m to the south and 128 m to the north. Flattest ground within 300 m: the névé on the normal route, LV95 2'623'237 / 1'100'349, 3'257 m, 264 m south-west and 148 m lower, Täsch; a rock island between two glaciers, 2'623'113 / 1'100'527, 3'210 m, 340 m west, Täsch. Zermatt scree 448 m south (2'623'429 / 1'100'055, 3'043 m) and 602 m south-south-west (2'623'315 / 1'099'917, 2'991 m). Aerial images © swisstopo: the summit on the lip of the north face, the névé flat on the glacier surface beside the boot track, no water and no grass near the top. Federal inventories at the summit: no game reserve, wildlife rest zone, park, BLN object, mire, floodplain, dry meadow, amphibian site, Ramsar or Emerald site, forest reserve or military area. map.geo.admin.ch, sit.vs.ch (official survey), sit.vs.ch (zoning). ↩
- Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Täsch, adopted by the Gemeinderat on 27 November 1997, accepted by the Urversammlung on 11 December 1997, homologated by the Staatsrat on 11 February 1998, and still the version on the commune's register on 12 October 2026. Art. 13 "Unerlaubtes Campieren": "Wer unerlaubt auf dem Gemeindegebiet, ausserhalb des offiziellen Campingplatzes, Zelte oder Wohnmobile aufstellt." Art. 2: "Haft oder Busse von Fr. 50.-- bis Fr. 5'000.--"; detention (Haft) left Swiss criminal law on 1 January 2007, so the fine remains. Art. 1 Abs. 3: offences are punishable "auch wenn sie fahrlässig begangen werden", even when committed negligently. The regulation names no authority, procedure or fee for a camping permission. No other Täsch act has a camping rule for a single night: the traffic regulation of 2011 has no camping article, and the building and zoning regulation of 2016 requires a building permit for tents outside an approved campsite only beyond 60 days. gemeinde-taesch.ch (register), Polizeireglement Täsch (PDF). ↩
- Polizeireglement der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, adopted by the Gemeinderat on 10 December 2020 and 29 April 2021, accepted by the Urversammlung on 8 June 2021, homologated by the Staatsrat on 26 January 2022. Art. 2 Abs. 1: "Das Polizeireglement Zermatt gilt örtlich und sachlich für die Gemeinde Zermatt." Art. 43 "Campieren", Abs. 1 and 2: "Unter Campieren versteht man das vorübergehende Verweilen in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen mobilen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen. Das blosse Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen etc. fällt ebenfalls unter den Begriff des Campierens. Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten." Abs. 3: "Das vereinzelte gelegentliche Campieren abseits von bewilligten Campingplätzen ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers gestattet." Art. 49 Abs. 1: negligence is punishable; Abs. 2: breaches of sections V and VI, in which Art. 43 sits, carry fines of CHF 10 to 5'000. Art. 52: the cost of an extraordinary police operation can be charged to whoever caused it. Art. 53 reserves the Verkehrsreglement, and Art. 54 Abs. 1 repeals only communal provisions that contradict the regulation. It contains no tariff. cms.ewg-zermatt.ch (PDF). ↩
- Verkehrsreglement der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, Art. 37 revised by the Urversammlung on 6 May 2004 and homologated by the Staatsrat on 16 August 2004. Art. 37 "Freies Campieren", Abs. 1: "Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist untersagt. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplätze." Abs. 2: "Gelegentliches, nicht kommerzielles Campieren auf privatem Boden ist gestattet, falls die schriftliche Einwilligung des Bodeneigentümers vorliegt." Art. 53 Abs. 1: breaches are fined up to CHF 5'000. cms.ewg-zermatt.ch (PDF). ↩
- Canton of Valais. Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuch (EGZGB), RS/VS 211.1, version in force since 1 January 2023, Art. 163 Abs. 3: "Die Gemeindestrassen, die nicht kultivierbaren Regionen, wie Felsen, Schutthalden, Schneefelder und Gletscher, Seen, alle Wasserläufe, ab demjenigen Punkt wo sie entspringen, fallen in das öffentliche Eigentum der Gemeinden." The version in force from 1 January 2027 keeps the paragraph unchanged. Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuch (EGStGB), RS/VS 311.1, version in force since 1 October 2026: Art. 72 Abs. 2 applies communal criminal law to breaches of communal law on the commune's territory; Art. 73 leaves negligent breaches of cantonal or communal law unpunished unless a provision says otherwise; Art. 74 Abs. 1 sets fines of CHF 10 to 10'000. Bauverordnung (BauV), RS/VS 705.100, version in force since 1 January 2026, Art. 17 Abs. 2 lit. a: a building permit is required only for "das Aufstellen von Wohnwagen, Zelten und dergleichen ausserhalb eines bewilligten Campingplatzes, wenn sie länger als 3 Wochen aufgestellt sind oder ihre Anzahl 12 übersteigt". lex.vs.ch (EGZGB), lex.vs.ch (EGStGB), lex.vs.ch (BauV). ↩
- Canton of Valais, hunting. Beschluss über die Ausübung der Jagd im Wallis 2026-2027, RS/VS 922.110, in force since 1 July 2026, Art. 37 Abs. 3: "Unter Vorbehalt gegenteiliger Bestimmungen dieses Beschlusses sowie von Anhang 4 dieses Beschlusses ist jegliche Jagd in den KBG und den gemischten KBG verboten." Its Anhang 4 has no special provision for the Mettelhorn or Furgghorn reserves, and the decree has no rule on tents or bivouacs for visitors. Cantonal hunting law, RS/VS 922.1, version in force and version from 1 November 2026: no rule on visitors, tents or camping. Cantonal hunting map: cantonal reserve (KBG) no. 58 "Mettelhorn", 5.79 km², on the south and east slopes, the scree of the normal route included, its line 2.4 m south of the summit point, with the summit, the névé and the Täsch west side outside it; KBG no. 59 "Furgghorn", 5.05 km², over the Triftchumme. No binding or recommended wildlife rest zone at the summit on the canton's map. These are cantonal reserves, not federal game reserves, so the federal rules for those reserves and their CHF 150 fixed fine do not apply. lex.vs.ch (RS/VS 922.110), lex.vs.ch (RS/VS 922.1), sit.vs.ch (hunting map). ↩
- Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, own publications, read on 12 October 2026. Media release of 1 May 2026, "Hinweis: Wildcampieren in Zermatt verboten": "Das Wildcampieren ist in der Gemeinde Zermatt nicht erlaubt. Gemäss Art. 43 des Polizeireglements der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt gilt bereits das vorübergehende Verweilen in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen mobilen Einrichtungen sowie das blosse Aufstellen solcher Einrichtungen als Campieren. Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten, das gilt auch für die Bergseen." News item "Campingplatz Zermatt bleibt 2026 geschlossen". The communal ranger, announced in a media release of 30 October 2024 and in post since 1 March 2025, checks wild camping on foot. Regionalpolizei Zermatt, Am Bach 7, 3920 Zermatt, regionalpolizei@zermatt.ch, +41 27 966 22 22, on duty in Zermatt, Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen. media release of 1 May 2026 (PDF), gemeinde.zermatt.ch (news). ↩
- Rhone Zeitung, 16 August 2019, on twelve tents at the Stellisee, which most likely went unpunished. For earlier interventions around the huts, above all the Hörnli and Monte Rosa huts, it quotes the Gemeindepräsidentin: "Die Bussen beliefen sich auf 200 Franken pro Zelt". Cited as one reported figure, not as a tariff: neither police regulation contains a price list. 1815.ch. ↩
- Berggasthaus Trift, 2'337 m, 3920 Zermatt, hosts Hugo and Fabienne Biner, operator pages read on 12 October 2026: 2026 season from 27 June to 20 September; reservation by phone only and mandatory, "Book your berth, no reservation, no overnight stay", +41 79 408 70 20; 8 double rooms, 1 room with 3 beds and 30 dormitory beds; bring a sleeping-bag liner and a towel; room with breakfast and dinner CHF 99, dormitory with breakfast and dinner CHF 84, per person and night, VAT included; no credit cards. Swiss Alpine Club route portal: the inn is the starting point for the Mettelhorn; Zermatt to the Trift via Alterhaupt, T2, 2 h and 750 m; the Mettelhorn from Zermatt via the Trift, T4, 4 h 30 to 5 h 30 and 1'800 m of ascent, so 2 h 30 to 3 h 30 from the inn. Rothornhütte SAC, 3'180 m, SAC section Oberaargau, at the head of the Trift valley 3.5 km west-south-west of the summit. zermatt.net/trift, prices, sac-cas.ch (Berggasthaus Trift), sac-cas.ch (Mettelhorn route), sac-oberaargau.ch (Rothornhütte). ↩
- Zermatt Tourism, route "Platthorn / Mettelhorn", read on 12 October 2026: demanding, T4, 7 h 05 min, 11.4 km, 1'961 m of ascent, from Zermatt, 1'620 m, to the Mettelhorn, 3'406 m. "Caution is advised here: the hiking trail to the summit of the Mettelhorn crosses a part of the glacier." Crampons or spikes, depending on the state of the glacier, are "absolutely necessary"; "Please contact the Trift mountain inn to get the latest information on the trail conditions." Light: sunrise calculated for the summit in summer time with the horizon of the Mischabel ridge, about 4'160 to 4'375 m high and 9.5 to 11 km east; first direct sun at about 6:05 on 27 June, 6:30 on 15 July, 6:40 on 1 August, 6:55 on 15 August, 7:15 on 1 September and 7:25 on 20 September. Personal account, colour and not a basis for the verdict: Alex Roddie, "A test of Mettel", 2020, on a snow hole dug on the glacier below the summit in July 2007, and on turning back without crampons in September 2017, when the glacier had become a steep icy slope. zermatt.swiss (route), alexroddie.com. ↩