Wild camping at the Oberer Murgsee: the calendar decides, not the map
Most spots answer yes or no. This one answers with a date. From 15 December until the end of the ski season, Quarten forbids you to set foot at this lake at all, in a binding article of its own ordinance. For the rest of the year, the zone that covers the water does not mention tents once, while a zone 242 metres away names them and forbids them. Knowing which side of both lines you are on is the whole job here.
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.
One article closes the whole basin, but only in winter
Wild camping at the Oberer Murgsee is governed by a single communal ordinance, and that ordinance treats the calendar as seriously as it treats the map.
What the cadastre returns at the pin. The St. Gallen cadastre carries 106 restrictions on this parcel, 105 of them with surface geometry and one a point, so the geometry set was audited before anything was concluded from it. Point-in-polygon at the lake returns six: a Wildruhezone mit Vorschriften im Winter, a Lebensraum Kerngebiet, a Geotopschutzgebiet, the cantonal Waldreservat Murgtal, and two water designations. The cadastre also names the act in force, which is how I knew what to read: the Schutzverordnung of the Politische Gemeinde Quarten, 1 March 2021.3
"In den Wildruhezonen sind alle Wintersportaktivitäten sowie das Betreten und Befahren während der Zeit vom 15. Dezember bis Ende Skisaison untersagt."Schutzverordnung Quarten, 1 March 2021, art. 18 para. 1.
Read what that actually says. Not "no camping". Not "no skiing". Betreten, entry on foot. Between 15 December and the end of the ski season the basin is closed to people, with the ordinance reserving only access to buildings and installations and normal farming and forestry work. A tent is beside the point in that window, because you should not be standing there at all. The federal wildlife-rest-zone register carries the same object, "Murgtal (Nr. 15.0)", canton St. Gallen, marked rechtsverbindlich with the prohibition type recorded as Zutrittsverbot and the protection period as 15 December to the end of the ski season.42
Now the other nine months or so. The zone that covers the pin the rest of the year is the Lebensraum Kerngebiet, and art. 16 spells out what is additionally forbidden there: buildings and installations, road and track construction, transport installations, agricultural intensification, tourist events and sporting occasions, and a specific list of activities running from moto-cross through mountain biking off marked roads to launching and landing paragliders. Six items. Camping is not one of them.5
That omission is not an oversight, because the same ordinance uses the words elsewhere. Art. 5, on the Naturschutzgebiete, forbids "die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Freizeitzwecken wie Lager, Zelten, Campieren usw. und das Anfachen von Feuer, ausser an den bezeichneten Stellen". The drafter had the vocabulary and attached it to nature reserves. Measured against every polygon on the parcel, the nearest nature-reserve designation is 242 metres from the pin and the nearest wet nature reserve 245 metres. Neither reaches the lake.6
Why this is still "it depends" and not "yes". Art. 16 sits on top of art. 15, which applies to the Schongebiete and through them to the core areas, and its third item is open-ended: "alle Tätigkeiten, welche eine Beeinträchtigung der Kerngebiete bewirken". There is no list to shelter behind there. Add art. 24, which refers breaches to the federal nature-protection act and the cantonal planning and building act and makes negligent breaches punishable alongside deliberate ones, and the honest reading is that a careful single night is not prohibited while a careless one is exactly what the general clause is for.67
Two other layers touch the pin and neither adds a camping rule. The Waldreservat Murgtal rests on a contract between forest owner and canton covering reserve objectives, silvicultural measures and compensation, with no reference to tents, fire or access at all. Above it, federal landscape inventory object 1602 "Murgtal, Mürtschen" covers the site; the BLN binds authorities when they act and is not addressed to a walker with a bivvy bag.71
Where to actually put the tent, and two ways the map lies
Having established that a summer night is not forbidden, the useful question is where. The obvious answers are both wrong, and it is worth showing why.
The map lies once about water. Ask the terrain model for the flattest ground here and it returns a beautiful 0.0 degrees at exactly 1'807.8 metres, repeated across several samples. That is not ground, it is the surface of the Mittlerer Murgsee. There are three Murgseen in this basin, and a water mask fetched at the upper lake alone does not know the middle one exists. Sweeping the whole box for water features returns both, 355 of 1'089 samples fall inside one of them, and the phantom pitch disappears.8
The map lies a second time about solitude. With the water masked, the flattest remaining ground sits 209 metres from the pin at 0.2 degrees, which looks ideal until you measure it against the building register: it is 33 metres from the Murgseehütte. That is the inn's own yard. Seven registered buildings stand around this basin, the nearest 224 metres from the water, and pitching in front of them is not wild camping, it is camping on somebody's doorstep without asking.9
The pitch that survives every filter. Requiring genuinely dry ground, at least 150 metres from any registered building, outside every nature-reserve polygon and at least 25 metres back from the shore, the best is 3.1 degrees at 1'821.3 metres, LV95 2'730'316 / 1'210'912, WGS84 47.036433 N / 9.153340 E. That is 334 metres south of the lake, 31 metres back from the water and 345 metres from the nearest building. 334 of 534 dry samples clear the same filters, so this is a comfortable basin rather than a single lucky stone.8
Altitude is on your side here, which is not something I get to write often. At 1'819 metres you are at or above the local treeline, so the Alpine Club's guidance for a single considerate night outside protected areas is at least in play, unlike at the lower lakes in this canton. The qualifier still matters: parts of this basin are protected areas, which is what the 242 metres in the previous section is about.10
And the date, one more time. If your plan lands anywhere between 15 December and the end of the ski season, none of the above applies and the answer is simply no. That period is not a recommendation, it is art. 18, and it closes the ground to entry rather than to tents.4
The place
Lake: WGS84 47.039346 N / 9.154420 E, LV95 2'730'391 / 1'211'237, 1'819.3 m on the federal terrain model, commune of Quarten, canton St. Gallen, in the Murgtal above the south shore of the Walensee. The cadastral parcel is 63, an alpine parcel of 4'384'525 m².3
The federal sweep at the pin returns two hits and a long row of blanks: BLN object 1602 "Murgtal, Mürtschen", and the wildlife rest zone. Game reserves, amphibian sites, raised bogs, fens, mire landscapes, floodplains, dry meadows, waterbird reserves and parks of national importance all come back empty. Those blanks were checked with a positive control that returns game reserve no. 3 Kiental and an invalid-layer control that errors with HTTP 400 instead of returning nothing, so an empty answer here means absence rather than a bad query.1
Two details of the setting that the legal analysis does not capture. The Murgseen are dammed: the gazetteer lists a Staumauer Murgsee Nord, Mitte and Süd plus a Süddamm, so the water level you find is managed rather than natural. And a Naturobjekt under the communal ordinance sits 20 metres from the pin, which is close enough that where exactly you walk on the shore matters even in summer.3
One thing I will not pretend to settle: when "Ende Skisaison" falls in any given year. The ordinance does not fix a date and it will not be the same in a long winter as in a short one. If you are planning anything in spring, that ambiguity is yours to resolve with the commune before you go, not mine to guess on a webpage.
Where you can legally sleep
- Not at all between 15 December and the end of the ski season: art. 18 forbids entry itself, so this is the one period with no lawful route4.
- In the open season, on the shelf 334 m south of the lake, 3.1 degrees at 1'821.3 m, 345 m from the nearest building and clear of every nature-reserve polygon8.
- Not within 242 m on the nature-reserve side, where art. 5 names Lager, Zelten and Campieren and forbids them outright6.
- Not in front of the Murgseehütte: the flattest ground of all is 33 m from its buildings, which makes it their yard rather than a wild pitch9.
- Carefully, whatever the date: art. 15's general clause against impairing the core habitat has no list to hide behind, and art. 24 catches negligence too7.
General rules for wild camping
This spot stays open in summer because the ordinance drew its camping ban around the nature reserves rather than around the whole basin. That distinction survives only as long as the behaviour does, and here it is written next to a general clause that would swallow a careless night without needing a new rule.
- 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 August 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 seasonal ban turns on the phrase "Ende Skisaison", which the ordinance does not define as a fixed date, so the closed period moves from year to year and only the commune can tell you where it ends in yours. The summer reading rests on the absence of camping from art. 16 read against its presence in art. 5, which is a strong reading but a reading, and art. 15 contains a general clause whose reach a commune or a court could interpret more broadly than I have. Distances are measured against published polygons and register points, not markers in the terrain. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself and follow the signs 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 Oberer Murgsee?
Is the winter rule really an entry ban and not just a camping ban?
How do you know camping is not banned in the summer months?
Where should the tent actually go?
Does the forest reserve or the BLN listing change anything?
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 12 August 2026 at the Oberer Murgsee, WGS84 47.039346 N / 9.154420 E, LV95 2'730'391 / 1'211'237, surface 1'819.3 m, commune of Quarten. The federal landscape inventory returns object BLN 1602 "Murgtal, Mürtschen" and the wildlife-rest-zone portal returns a hit. The game-reserve, amphibian, raised-bog, fen, mire-landscape, floodplain, dry-meadow, waterbird-reserve and national-parks layers all return an empty result set. Verified with a positive control at LV95 2'626'000 / 1'154'500, which returns federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental, and an invalid-layer control, which returns HTTP 400 rather than an empty set. The BLN binds authorities in the performance of their tasks and is not a prohibition addressed to individuals. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Federal wildlife-rest-zone register (Wildruhezonen-Portal), object "Murgtal (Nr. 15.0)", canton St. Gallen, read 12 August 2026. Protection status rechtsverbindlich, prohibition type recorded as Zutrittsverbot (access ban), protection period "15.12. bis Ende Skisaison", legal basis recorded as the communal Schutzverordnung, year of decision 2021. The cadastral legend for the same area reads "Wildruhezone mit Vorschriften im Winter WiW". map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Cadastre of public-law restrictions on landownership, canton of St. Gallen, extract fetched with geometry on 12 August 2026 for EGRID CH407788770753: parcel 63, 4'384'525 m², 106 restrictions, of which 105 carry surface geometry and one is a point, so the geometry set was audited before any negative was drawn from it. Point-in-polygon at the lake returns Wildruhezone mit Vorschriften im Winter WiW, Lebensraum Kerngebiet LR K, Geotopschutzgebiet GeoS, Waldreservat Murgtal (kantonal), Hinweis Gewässer and a potential watercourse space under transitional law. Every restriction was then ranked by distance rather than tested only at the point: a Naturobjekt lies 20 m away, the agricultural zone 169 m, the nearest communal nature-protection green zone 242 m and the wet nature reserve NFA 245 m. The cadastre names the act in force as the Schutzverordnung Teil Landschaftsschutz of the Politische Gemeinde Quarten, reference 2021-4130. oereb.geo.sg.ch. ↩
- Politische Gemeinde Quarten, Schutzverordnung, 1 March 2021, art. 18 para. 1 (Wildruhezonen): "Die Wildruhezonen bezwecken den Schutz der Wildtiere vor Störungen. In den Wildruhezonen sind alle Wintersportaktivitäten sowie das Betreten und Befahren während der Zeit vom 15. Dezember bis Ende Skisaison untersagt. Der Zugang zu Bauten und Anlagen sowie die land- und forstwirtschaftliche Bewirtschaftung bleiben gewährleistet." The prohibition covers entry on foot, not merely camping, and the ordinance fixes no calendar date for the end of the ski season. oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Politische Gemeinde Quarten, Schutzverordnung, art. 16 (Lebensraum-Kerngebiete), the zone covering the pin, read in full on 12 August 2026: "Die Lebensraum-Kerngebiete sind in ihrer Unberührtheit zu erhalten. Gegenüber den Lebensraum-Schongebieten sind zusätzlich untersagt:", followed by six items covering the erection of buildings and installations, the construction or extension of roads and tracks, transport installations, agricultural intensification, tourist events and sporting occasions, and moto-cross, mountain biking away from marked roads, model aircraft and the launching and landing of paragliders and hang-gliders. Camping appears in none of them. oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Politische Gemeinde Quarten, Schutzverordnung, the two articles that decide the summer reading. Art. 5 (Naturschutzgebiete) forbids, among other things, "die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Freizeitzwecken wie Lager, Zelten, Campieren usw. und das Anfachen von Feuer, ausser an den bezeichneten Stellen"; the nearest zone of that class is 242 m from the pin. Art. 15 (Lebensraum-Schongebiete), which applies cumulatively to the core areas, forbids road construction, extraction and deposits, and, open-endedly, "alle Tätigkeiten, welche eine Beeinträchtigung der Kerngebiete bewirken". A word-boundary scan of the whole ordinance returns exactly one occurrence each of Zelten and Campieren, both in art. 5, and none of Biwak, Lagern or Übernachten; a naive substring scan reports twelve "Zelt" hits, which are the word "vereinzelt" in the object inventory. oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Politische Gemeinde Quarten, Schutzverordnung art. 24 (Zuwiderhandlungen): "Zuwiderhandlungen gegen die Vorschriften dieser Schutzverordnung werden gemäss NHG und PBG geahndet. Als Zuwiderhandlung gilt sowohl der vorsätzlich als auch der fahrlässig herbeigeführte Verstoss." Read together with the cantonal contract for the Waldreservat Murgtal, the nine-page agreement between forest owner and canton returned as a restriction at the pin, covering contractual components, reserve objectives, silvicultural and other measures, monitoring and compensation. Scanned in full: zero occurrences of Zelt, Campier, Camping, Biwak, Feuer or Betreten, so the forest reserve adds no camping or access restriction. oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Terrain analysis, 12 August 2026, from the federal terrain model on a 25 m grid over an 800 m box centred on the lake, 1'089 samples, all returned. The water mask had to be swept across the whole box rather than fetched at the pin: a query at the upper lake returns only the Oberer Murgsee, and the model then reports 0.0 degrees at exactly 1'807.8 m as the flattest ground, which is the surface of the Mittlerer Murgsee. Sweeping returns both lakes, 355 of 1'089 samples fall inside one of them, and the mask was checked in both directions (the lake coordinate reads as water, a point 1.5 km away does not). Of 534 dry samples with a full slope neighbourhood, 334 clear the publication filters of at least 150 m from any registered building, outside every nature-reserve polygon and at least 25 m from the shore. Best of those: 3.1 degrees at 1'821.3 m, LV95 2'730'316 / 1'210'912, WGS84 47.036433 N / 9.153340 E, 334 m from the lake coordinate and 31 m from the water. After masking, the most repeated dry elevation occurs seven times, so no false plane remains. geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Federal register of buildings and dwellings, queried 12 August 2026 within 800 m of the lake: seven registered buildings around the basin, addressed Murgsee 878, 879, 880.1, 1794.1, 1854.1, 2407.1 and 2857.1, the nearest 224 m from the water. This is what disqualifies the flattest masked ground: the 0.2-degree shelf 209 m from the pin lies 33 m from the Murgseehütte buildings, which makes it the inn's yard rather than a wild pitch, so the published pitch is filtered by distance to the register instead. The Murgseen are dammed; the gazetteer records a Staumauer Murgsee Nord, Mitte and Süd and a Süddamm. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Swiss Alpine Club, information on bivouacking and wild camping. The SAC position is that a single, considerate, one-night bivouac above the treeline and outside protected areas is generally tolerated in Switzerland. At 1'819 m the Oberer Murgsee is at or above the local treeline, so unlike the lower lakes of this canton the altitude qualifier is satisfied here; the "outside protected areas" qualifier is the one that still does work, which is what the 242 m to the nearest nature reserve and the seasonal rest zone are about. Guidance, not law. sac-cas.ch. ↩