Wild camping on the Oberrothorn

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.

Which summit this is, and where the line falls

The Oberrothorn is a rock cone of 3'414 m above Zermatt, the high summit behind the Rothorn and Blauherd lift stations in Valais. The federal gazetteer records it as a main summit and files it under Täsch, and the marked path passes about 26 metres from the top, waymarked white-red-white, so this is a three thousander you walk up rather than climb.⁶

From the Rothorn top station at 3'087 m it is 2.9 km, 415 m of ascent and about 1 h 25, graded advanced by the lift company and T3 in the route databases. The line drops about 105 m first, to the Pass Furggji at 2'983 m, and only then climbs the south flank. There is no water on it: the nearest mapped watercourse is about 380 m away and well below the crest. Everything you need up there is carried, every litre included.⁹⁶

What decides this article is a line, and it runs over the summit. The gazetteer point is on Täsch ground. Zermatt ground begins 3.65 m due west of it and 49.8 m due south. North, north-east and east is Täsch; south, south-west and west is Zermatt, at 100 m, at 250 m, at 500 m and at a kilometre alike.⁶

Above 3'400 m the Täsch share of this summit is a strip roughly ten metres wide with the east face along its edge. The whole approach from the Unterrothorn runs over Zermatt ground; only the summit cone is Täsch. And nobody standing up there can tell which of the two they are in: swisstopo puts the positional accuracy of the boundary data at half a metre, there is no cadastral survey at this altitude and no surveyed parcel at the top, so the line exists on the map and nowhere on the ground.⁶

The norm at the pin: Täsch, and it covers the whole commune

Täsch has had a police regulation since 1998. The Gemeinderat adopted it on 27 November 1997, the Urversammlung accepted it on 11 December 1997, and the Staatsrat homologated it on 11 February 1998. Six pages, twenty three articles, and it is still the version the commune publishes. Article 13 is the one that decides this summit.¹

"Wer unerlaubt auf dem Gemeindegebiet, ausserhalb des offiziellen Campingplatzes, Zelte oder Wohnmobile aufstellt."Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Täsch, art. 13 "Unerlaubtes Campieren". In English: whoever, without permission, pitches tents or motorhomes on the communal territory outside the official campsite.

Read the scope, because it is wider than the one people expect. The ban is written against the Gemeindegebiet, the whole communal territory, and not against public ground. It does not ask who owns the slope. The only exception it names is the official campsite.¹

The penalty is in article 2 of the same act: "Die Strafen sind Haft oder Busse von Fr. 50.-- bis Fr. 5'000.--." Haft left Swiss criminal law with the revised general part of the criminal code on 1 January 2007, so what survives is the fine, and the Valais act implementing the criminal code caps communal fines at CHF 10'000, so the Täsch frame stands. There is no Ordnungsbusse list in Täsch at all, so the frame is what there is.¹³

And "I did not know which commune I was in" is not a defence here. Article 1 paragraph 3 says the offences the regulation creates are punishable even when committed negligently. That sentence is doing real work, because the cantonal default is the opposite: Valais law makes communal contraventions unpunishable when they are negligent, subject to contrary provisions. Täsch wrote the contrary provision.³

One honest limit on the wording. Article 13 catches whoever "Zelte oder Wohnmobile aufstellt", pitches a tent or a motorhome. A bivvy bag with no structure is not obviously a tent, so the Täsch text leaves a real gap there. It is a narrow gap, the ground closes it, and the section after next is where that happens.¹

The campsite the article carves out is closed

Article 13 excepts "der offizielle Campingplatz". Täsch's own site, Camping Alphubel, is shut, one of thirteen Valais campsites taken out of service over rockfall and flood hazard, and although Täsch voters approved a relocation with 65.7 percent in 2026, no opening date has been published. Camping Zermatt is closed too. The carve out currently points at nothing.¹⁷

What does not apply here

Valais has no cantonal camping ban. The only cantonal rule that touches a tent is a planning threshold: the building ordinance of 12 March 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, requires a building permit for tents outside an authorised campsite only when they stand for more than three weeks or number more than twelve. One night is nowhere near either figure.⁵

The federal inventories are quiet here as well, and each was checked separately. There is no federal game reserve within 10 km, so the federal tenting ban and its CHF 150 fixed penalty never enter this case, and there is no wildlife rest zone at the summit: the nearest are winter sports instruments 1.45 km and 2.85 km away, and neither is a camping rule. The federal landscape inventory object "Dent Blanche - Matterhorn - Monte Rosa" has its boundary 53.5 m due south, so the summit sits just outside it, and that inventory binds authorities rather than hikers.⁶

The other half of the summit: Zermatt, and why the narrower wording still bites

Zermatt is on its 2022 police regulation: passed by the Gemeinderat on 10 December 2020 and 29 April 2021, accepted by the Urversammlung on 8 June 2021, homologated by the Valais Staatsrat on 26 January 2022 and signed on 2 February 2022. The commune's own list of regulations still names it as the version in force.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."Polizeireglement der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, art. 43 "Campieren", paras. 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.

That is wider than the Täsch text in what it catches and narrower in where it reaches. Wider, because staying in a tent is enough and putting one up is enough on its own, with nobody having to sleep in it. Narrower, because it is written against öffentlicher Grund, communal land, and not against the whole commune. The broader term öffentlicher Raum appears nowhere in the nineteen pages.²

On most Valais ground that narrowness opens a gap, because the ban stops at the fence of the first private field. At 3'414 m it opens nothing, and the reason sits in the cantonal act implementing the civil code:

"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, RS/VS 211.1, art. 163 para. 3. In English: communal roads, non-cultivable regions such as rock, scree slopes, snowfields and glaciers, lakes and all watercourses from the point where they rise fall into the public property of the communes.

Rock and scree at 3'414 m is the textbook case. So the Zermatt half of this summit is Zermatt's own public ground, and the ban applies to it without an argument. That also disposes of paragraph 3, the consent route: occasional isolated camping away from authorised campsites is allowed only with the landowner's agreement, and up here the landowner is the commune that wrote the ban.⁴

The fine frame for the section article 43 sits in runs from CHF 10 to CHF 5'000, and article 52 lets the commune pass on the cost of an extraordinary police operation on top. No tariff, no price list.²

Which of the two acts applies is decided by the ground under your boots. Valais law provides that whoever infringes communal law on a commune's territory is judged by that commune's criminal law, so on this summit the ticket depends on which side of an invisible line you were standing.³

The commune says it in its own words

Zermatt does not leave the reading to lawyers. Its media release of 1 May 2026 carries the heading "Hinweis: Wildcampieren in Zermatt verboten" and then spells the article out:

"Das Wildcampieren ist in der Gemeinde Zermatt nicht erlaubt. Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten, das gilt auch für die Bergseen."Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, media release of 1 May 2026. In English: wild camping is not permitted in the commune of Zermatt; camping on public ground is prohibited, and that applies to the mountain lakes as well.

The argument you are about to make, and what the ground does to it

Anybody who opens a map before this trip finds the same thing: the summit is filed under Täsch, not Zermatt. And Zermatt is the commune with the reputation, the media releases and the two lakes in this journal. So the move suggests itself. Stay on the Täsch side and the famous ban does not reach you.

The first half of that is correct. The Zermatt regulation says of itself that it applies "örtlich und sachlich für die Gemeinde Zermatt", and the provision about the neighbouring communes only tells the regional police which principles to work by when they are on duty in Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen. It does not extend the list of offences. Article 43 criminalises nothing on Täsch soil.²

The second half is where it falls apart. Täsch has its own ban and it is the wider of the two. Zermatt forbids camping on public ground; Täsch forbids putting a tent up anywhere on the communal territory. The step you just took to escape a ban on communal land has put you under a ban on all land.¹

And then there is the ground

The Täsch part of this summit is the north and east flank, and there is nothing on it to sleep on at any distance you would walk.

The top is not a dome, it is the lip of a face. Ten metres east of it the ground lies 24.4 m lower; ten metres west it lies 3.6 m lower. That asymmetry is why the summit ground falls at 47 degrees. The flattest ground on the Täsch side within 80 metres falls at 29 degrees, on a narrow arête whose east side is that same face.⁶

Every piece of near level ground within 80 metres of the top is on the Zermatt side, and the best of it is not a bench either. The one patch that reads flat lies 22 metres south-south-west, and close up it is a crest about three metres wide: along its length the ground runs between 0 and 15 degrees, across it between 17 and 37. That is something you walk on, not something you lie on.⁶

Walking further north inside Täsch does not repair it. The Täsch corridor up there is the same arête, the slope stays above 37 degrees, and article 13 covers the whole commune anyway, so the extra distance buys nothing legally either.¹

Somebody has done this, and where they slept is the tell

There is one trip report of a bivouac on this mountain, from 2020, headed "Biwaktour aufs Oberrothorn". The author pitched on a flat area below the summit path near the Furggji, at close to 3'000 m, and went for the top before dawn. He did not sleep on the summit, because there is nowhere up there to do it. In the comments under the report a reader asks whether camping around Zermatt is not banned, and the author concedes the point: "Gesetz bleibt Gesetz, auch auf Gemeindeebene".¹⁰

Worth adding what the thread does not: the flat ground near the Furggji is Zermatt ground, so that was not a lawful pitch either. It was simply the nearest place on the mountain that would take a tent.⁶

Asking anyway, and who actually turns up

On the Zermatt side there is no door. The consent route needs a Grundeigentümer to say yes, and the owner of this rock is the commune whose regulation forbids it. There is no surveyed parcel at the summit and no private title to write to.⁴

On the Täsch side a door exists on paper. Article 13 punishes camping that is unerlaubt, without permission, which means a permission is conceptually possible, and by the same cantonal ownership rule the addressee would be the commune itself.

These permissions are not imaginary. In the neighbouring commune the Burgergemeinde Zermatt granted a tent request as an Ausnahmebewilligung in the Schwarzsee area on 24 April 2023, so this is a real, written and discretionary decision rather than a quiet word with somebody. It is also the exception: the same record has the Burgerschreiber saying two other requests were "klar abgelehnt".⁸

Who actually turns up

Zermatt runs its night checks by drone. On the ground it is a ranger on foot, and the commune's own description of the job says so: the post was announced in a media release of 30 October 2024 and filled from 1 March 2025, and the release says of him that "auch in Bezug auf Wildbeobachtungen, Wildschutzzonen und wildes Campieren führt er Kontrollen durch, ermahnt Camper und arbeitet gegebenenfalls mit der Regionalpolizei zusammen", adding that "dabei ist der Ranger ein Kommunikator und weniger eine Kontrollperson".⁷

Behind him is the Regionalpolizei Zermatt, which covers Zermatt, Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen from one office, on +41 27 966 22 22 and regionalpolizei@zermatt.ch. That is the practical answer to the boundary question: stepping four metres west of the summit does not change who arrives, only which article goes on the ticket.⁷²

On money, one hedged figure and nothing more. The only sourced number in this valley comes from 2019, when twelve tents were fined at the Stellisee and the report records "Die Bussen beliefen sich auf 200 Franken pro Zelt", with the cost of the flight to reach the site charged on to the campers. Treat CHF 200 as practice from that year rather than as a tariff: what the texts give you is the two frames and a discretionary cost recovery.⁸¹

Where you sleep instead

Berghaus Fluhalp, 2'616 m. It is 1.67 km south-south-west of the summit and 795 m below it, on Zermatt ground, with rooms and a Gemeinschaftslager, half board and bedding provided. The 2026 season runs 19 June to 4 October. +41 27 967 25 97, info@fluhalp.swiss, fluhalp.swiss. From the Fluhalp the broad, scree covered south-east ridge leads to the top, which makes this the actual sunrise plan and not a consolation prize. The house publishes no room price, so settle that when you book.⁹

Täschhütte SAC, 2'701 m. 2.97 km north and 713 m below, on Täsch ground, run by the SAC section Uto, 71 beds plus a ten place winter room, half board CHF 85 for members and CHF 100 for everyone else, +41 27 967 39 13. Season 2026: 29 May to 19 September. It sits across the Täschalp valley, so it is a base for the peaks behind it rather than for this one, and on tents it publishes nothing at all, neither an offer nor a refusal, on Täsch ground where article 13 covers everything.⁹¹

The nearest working campsite is in neither commune. Camping Randa, Attermenzen 55, 3928 Randa, +41 27 967 25 55, nine road kilometres down the valley and cash only.⁹

The lifts cannot give you this sunrise

This is what sends people looking for a bivouac in the first place. In summer 2026 the Rothorn cable car runs only 27 June to 4 October, first car up 08.20, last one down 16.50. The single sunrise product on the mountain, "Frühstück & Sonnenaufgang", runs on Saturdays from 4 July to 26 September, from CHF 61, and it goes to Blauherd with breakfast at the Fluhalp. It puts nobody on this summit at first light. A bed at the Fluhalp does.⁹

Two lakes below this summit get the same answer for the same article: wild camping at the Stellisee and wild camping at the Riffelsee, both on Zermatt ground. For how the cantons compare with each other: wild camping in Switzerland.

General rules for wild camping

Nothing on this summit is a grey zone, so the useful rules are the ones for the night you do end up having, lower down in this valley:

• 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

Everything here is a journalistic assessment as of September 2026, from the sources linked below, and it is not legal advice.

Illegal is the verdict on both halves of the summit. Täsch prohibits putting a tent up anywhere on its territory, Zermatt prohibits camping on public ground, and cantonal law makes rock and scree at this altitude public ground. Each one settles the ground it covers.

The commune boundary was measured against the current federal boundary record rather than estimated. swisstopo gives that product a positional accuracy of half a metre, and there is no cadastral survey at this altitude, so treat both bans as live on the whole summit instead of picking a side.

The figure of CHF 200 a tent is reported practice from a 2019 case at the Stellisee, not a tariff. Neither police regulation contains a price list, and Täsch publishes no fixed penalty catalogue at all.

Frequently asked questions

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. 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 published by the commune as at 8 September 2026. Art. 13 "Unerlaubtes Campieren": "Wer unerlaubt auf dem Gemeindegebiet, ausserhalb des offiziellen Campingplatzes, Zelte oder Wohnmobile aufstellt." Art. 2: "Die Strafen sind Haft oder Busse von Fr. 50.-- bis Fr. 5'000.--. Sie können miteinander verbunden werden." Art. 1 Abs. 3: "Die unter Strafe gestellten Übertretungen sind strafbar, auch wenn sie fahrlässig begangen werden." The act contains no camping permit provision; its only permission article covers public events. The commune's register lists eighteen regulations and its A to Z index carries a single "Camping" entry, pointing at the campsite as a business, with no form, fee or procedure published for a tent outside it. The official campsite the article carves out, Camping Alphubel, is closed, one of thirteen Valais campsites taken out of service over rockfall and flood hazard; Täsch voters approved a relocation with 65.7 percent in 2026 and no opening date has been announced. Gemeindekanzlei Täsch, kanzlei@taesch.ch, +41 27 966 46 66. gemeinde-taesch.ch, PDF. ↩
2. Polizeireglement der Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, Gemeinderat 10 December 2020 and 29 April 2021, Urversammlung 8 June 2021, homologated by the Valais Staatsrat on 26 January 2022, signed Zermatt 2 February 2022; confirmed as the version in force against the commune's own register of regulations on 8 September 2026. Art. 43 "Campieren" para. 1: "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."; para. 2: "Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ist verboten."; para. 3: "Das vereinzelte gelegentliche Campieren abseits von bewilligten Campingplätzen ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentümers gestattet." Art. 49 para. 2 sets the fine frame for section VI, in which art. 43 sits, at CHF 10 to CHF 5'000. Art. 52 "Kostenersatz": "Vom Verursacher ausserordentlicher Aufwendungen, die bei einem Polizeieinsatz entstehen, namentlich wenn sie vorsätzlich oder grobfahrlässig verursacht worden sind, kann ein Kostenersatz erhoben werden." Art. 2 para. 1: "Das Polizeireglement Zermatt gilt örtlich und sachlich für die Gemeinde Zermatt."; para. 2 provides that the principles of the regulation apply to the regional police when it performs police duties in Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen. The term "öffentlicher Raum" does not appear anywhere in the nineteen pages; the ban is written against "öffentlicher Grund". The commune relaunched its website on 1 September 2026 and the document moved address; the file linked here is the current one. cms.ewg-zermatt.ch. ↩
3. Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Strafgesetzbuch (EGStGB), RS/VS 311.1, of 12 May 2016, in force since 1 January 2018. Art. 72 para. 2: "Begeht jemand eine Widerhandlung gegen kommunales Recht auf Gemeindegebiet, kommt das kommunale Strafrecht zur Anwendung." Art. 73: "Unter Vorbehalt gegenteiliger Bestimmungen sind kantonal- oder kommunalrechtliche Übertretungen nicht strafbar, wenn sie fahrlässig begangen werden", which is the default the Täsch regulation displaces in its art. 1 para. 3. Art. 74 para. 1: "Die Busse beträgt mindestens 10 Franken und höchstens 10'000 Franken", the cantonal frame inside which the Täsch figures of CHF 50 to CHF 5'000 sit. Art. 75 para. 2 confirms the commune's competence to enact provisions against police contraventions within the limits of federal and cantonal law, so the 1998 regulation survived the 2016 recodification. lex.vs.ch. ↩
4. Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuch (EGZGB), RS/VS 211.1, of 24 March 1998, in force since 1 January 1999, not repealed. Art. 163 para. 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." Rock and scree at 3'414 m falls squarely within that description, which is why the Zermatt half of the summit is that commune's own public ground and why the landowner consent route in art. 43 para. 3 of the Zermatt police regulation has no private addressee here. Art. 164 para. 2 adds that the common use of public property is governed by cantonal public law and by the valid regulations of the canton and the communes, i.e. the communal police regulations are the instrument by cantonal design. lex.vs.ch. ↩
5. Cantonal level, Valais. Bauverordnung (BauV), RS/VS 705.100, of 12 March 2025, in force since 1 January 2026, art. 17 para. 2 lit. a: a building permit is required 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". A single tent for a single night reaches neither threshold. Beyond that threshold the canton has no camping provision: word scans of the German texts of the EGStGB (RS/VS 311.1) and of the communal act (RS/VS 175.1) return no occurrence of Campieren, Zelt, Biwak or Übernachten, each scan run with control terms that do return hits in the same document. The camping rules that bind at this pin are therefore communal. lex.vs.ch. ↩
6. Boundary, terrain and protected area layers at the pin, queried 8 September 2026 at WGS84 46.0277214 / 7.8128276, LV95 2'628'974.5 / 1'097'421.9, terrain surface 3'413.2 m. swissNAMES3D records "Oberrothorn", object type Hauptgipfel, commune Täsch. The commune boundary was taken from the current year record of swissBOUNDARIES3D and cut by bisection rather than by sampling: Zermatt ground begins 3.65 m due west of the point and 49.8 m due south, the boundary crosses the point's own easting about 50 m to the south, and at 100 m, 250 m, 500 m and 1'000 m the ground north, north-east and east is Täsch while south, south-west and west is Zermatt. Of the ten metre cells above 3'400 m within 80 m of the point, nine are Täsch and they form a single strip about ten metres wide with the east face along its edge. swisstopo gives swissBOUNDARIES3D a geometric accuracy of ±0.5 m in position and height, and the Valais cadastre returns no parcel at the summit, with a positive control in Täsch village returning one. Terrain from swissALTI3D by central differences: 47 degrees at the point, ground 24.4 m lower ten metres east and 3.6 m lower ten metres west, flattest Täsch side cell within 80 m at 29 degrees, and the flattest cell overall, 22 m south-south-west, resolving at three metre spacing into a crest about three metres wide running 0 to 15 degrees along its length and 17 to 37 degrees across it. Pass Furggji 2'982.9 m, 0.80 km away, on Zermatt ground. Nearest marked path about 26 m; no buildings within 1 km; nearest mapped watercourse about 380 m away and well below. Federal layers: no game reserve within a 10 km box; no wildlife rest zone at the point, on a layer carrying 16 Valais features in the same box, with the nearest zones Ritzengrat - Rote Wäng 1.45 km west-south-west and the binding Täsch zone no. 1008.0 with an access ban from 15 December to 30 April 2.85 km away; BLN object 1707 "Dent Blanche - Matterhorn - Monte Rosa" with its boundary 53.5 m due south, the summit outside it. Every identify query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id returning HTTP 400 while real layers returned HTTP 200. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
7. Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, own communications. Media release of 1 May 2026, under the heading "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." The same release addresses the closed campsite in the commune and describes a future operation at the present site as "wenig wahrscheinlich". Media release of 30 October 2024 announcing the communal ranger, in post since 1 March 2025: "Auch in Bezug auf Wildbeobachtungen, Wildschutzzonen und wildes Campieren führt er Kontrollen durch, ermahnt Camper und arbeitet gegebenenfalls mit der Regionalpolizei zusammen", and "Dabei ist der Ranger ein Kommunikator und weniger eine Kontrollperson." Regionalpolizei Zermatt, Am Bach 7, 3920 Zermatt, regionalpolizei@zermatt.ch, +41 27 966 22 22, on duty in Zermatt, Täsch, St. Niklaus and Grächen. gemeinde.zermatt.ch, archived copy. ↩
8. Reported enforcement practice in the Zermatt valley, 2019: twelve tents pitched at the Stellisee were fined, and the report records "Die Bussen beliefen sich auf 200 Franken pro Zelt", with the cost of the flight required to reach the site charged on to those fined. The same report carries the Gemeindepräsidentin on the record and the Burgerschreiber stating that two requests for permission had been "klar abgelehnt". Cited here as practice from a single case and not as a tariff: neither police regulation contains a price list. For the contrast, the Burgergemeinde Zermatt did grant a tent request as an Ausnahmebewilligung in the Schwarzsee area on 24 April 2023, so permissions of this kind exist, in writing and at the granting body's discretion. 1815.ch. ↩
9. Beds, seasons and the route, from the operators. Berghaus Fluhalp, 2'616 m, 1.67 km south-south-west of the summit and 795 m below it, rooms and a Gemeinschaftslager with half board and bedding provided, 2026 season 19 June to 4 October, +41 27 967 25 97, info@fluhalp.swiss; no room price is published. Täschhütte SAC, 2'701 m, 2.97 km north and 713 m below, SAC section Uto, 71 beds plus a ten place winter room, half board CHF 85 for members and CHF 100 for non-members, 2026 season 29 May to 19 September, +41 27 967 39 13; the hut publishes nothing about tents, neither an offer nor a prohibition. Camping Randa, Attermenzen 55, 3928 Randa, +41 27 967 25 55, about nine road kilometres down the valley, cash only. Zermatt Bergbahnen, summer 2026: the Rothorn cable car runs 27 June to 4 October, first car up 08.20, last car down 16.50; the "Frühstück & Sonnenaufgang" product runs on Saturdays from 4 July to 26 September, from CHF 61, and goes to Blauherd with breakfast at the Fluhalp. Route from the Rothorn top station at 3'087 m: 2.9 km, 415 m of ascent, about 1 h 25, graded advanced by the operator and T3 in the route databases, waymarked white-red-white. fluhalp.swiss. ↩
10. Trip report "Biwaktour aufs Oberrothorn", 2020, cited as colour and not as a source for the verdict. The author describes pitching on a flat area below the summit path near the Furggji at close to 3'000 m and climbing to the summit before dawn, rather than sleeping on the summit itself. In the comment thread a reader asks whether camping around Zermatt is not prohibited and the author concedes it with "Gesetz bleibt Gesetz, auch auf Gemeindeebene". The ground he describes lies on Zermatt territory, so it was covered by art. 43 of the Zermatt police regulation. hikr.org. ↩