Wild camping at the Ritzplanggen: lawful, on one bench
Two things had to be true here, and both are. Nothing at any level prohibits a night on this ground, which in the Taminatal is not obvious, because the commune does ban tents, twice, in zones that stop short of this point. And there is somewhere to lie down: one bench of 1.8 degrees in a slope that otherwise averages 36.
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.
Nothing forbids it, and here is each level
Federal law first, because it is the only level that can fine you without anyone local getting involved. At LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635 the identify service returns nothing: no federal game reserve, no wildlife rest zone, no BLN landscape, no raised or lowland bog, no mire landscape, no floodplain, no dry meadow, no amphibian site, no Emerald site, no park of national importance, no forest reserve. Every one of those queries ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which comes back as an error rather than as an empty answer, so the zeros are genuine.1
The nearest things that do exist are far: the federal game reserve Graue Hörner is 2'732 m away, the wildlife rest zone Dreher-Branggis-Hochrütiwald 2'630 m, and the UNESCO Tectonic Arena Sardona 596 m west, which is a world heritage label rather than a camping rule.1
The canton has no camping rule to apply
St. Gallen is one of the cantons that simply never legislated on this. Read in full: the Polizeigesetz mentions overnight guests exactly three times and all three are art. 52bis, the hotel registration form. The Übertretungsstrafgesetz, which is where a cantonal fixed penalty would have to live, contains no camping term at all. The nature protection ordinance, the hunting act and both forest acts are silent. The Planungs- und Baugesetz does say "Zelt", twice: once to list campsites among the facilities an intensive-recreation zone is for, once to exempt mobile structures from a building permit for up to three months a year. That is planning law about installations, not a rule about you.3
The commune bans tents, in two zones, and this is neither
Pfäfers has no police regulation. Its published collection runs to 29 acts and there is no Polizeireglement among them, which is why the whole answer here turns on one document: the Schutzverordnung.4
That ordinance contains exactly two camping prohibitions, and both are tied to a zone:
- Art. 8, nature reserves: forbidden is "die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Freizeitzwecken, wie Lagern, Zelten, Campieren und das Anfachen von Feuer, ausser an den bezeichneten Stellen". The nearest nature reserve to this bench is 2'291 m away.
- Art. 18, and read the heading: "b) Kerngebiet Calfeisental (LRK 4)". Inside that one named core habitat, "zelten, campieren" is added to the list. Its eastern edge is about 1.6 km west of here.
The point is inside a core habitat, and that is where people go wrong. The cadastre puts it in "Lebensraum Kerngebiet LR K", which sounds like art. 18 and is not. The ordinance names four of them: LRK 1 Nord Vättnerberg, LRK 2 Süd Simel, LRK 3 Ost St. Margrethenberg-Vättis, LRK 4 Calfeisental. Only the fourth carries art. 18. The other three sit under art. 17, whose list of prohibitions is buildings, intensification of farming, road building, transport installations, extraction and deposits, tourist events, moto-cross, mountain biking off marked roads, model aircraft and paraglider launches. There is no tent in it.2
Which one covers this bench was settled on geometry rather than on the name. The parcel carries five core-habitat polygons; the one containing the point is the 12 km² body running from east of Vättis north over the Muntaluna terrace, and the ordinance's own annex describes exactly that: "Terrasse am Muntaluna nördlich von Vättis mit Mähwiesen und prachtvollen Wildheuwiesen ... höchste noch in traditioneller Art genutzte Kulturlandschaft des Kantons St. Gallen". The Calfeisental polygon is the western one and does not reach this side.25
Two more provisions are worth knowing rather than worrying about. Art. 17 para. 2 pulls in the protection aims of the landscape zones under art. 15, and those bar measures that damage landscape-forming elements such as woods, forest edges, terrain and watercourses; a tent for one night is not one. And art. 20 closes the communal wildlife rest zones to entry from 16 December to the end of the ski season. Neither of the two zones it names is here, and in any case this is a summer answer.2
The ground, and why the requester was right to name a spot height
This is a place where the map name and the campable ground are 150 metres apart, and the request that produced this article had both: "ritzplanggen, P2159".
The name is not the pitch. The gazetteer anchor for Ritzplanggen sits at 2'167.1 m and measures 33.2 degrees. Samples at 100 m around it run 24.6 to 42.9 degrees, at 250 m up to 58. A "Plangge" in this dialect is precisely that: a steep, hand-mown grass slope. You cannot sleep on it.6
The spot height is. On a 25 metre grid over an 800 by 800 metre box, 1'089 points with a median slope of 36.0 degrees, exactly one candidate comes back under 10 degrees, and it reads 2'158.8 m. Re-measured at 10 metres it resolves to 1.8 degrees at 2'159.4 m, LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635, with a handful of neighbouring cells between 4 and 7 degrees. It is a small shelf, tens of metres across, and it is the whole answer to "where".6
Around it: the Radeinbach 182 m away, the nearest registered building 975 m (the alp at Calvina), the nearest marked hiking trail 1'022 m, and the forest edge 1'307 m below. You are above the tree line, off the path network, and out of sight of anyone's front door. The nearest other commune is Bad Ragaz at 2'506 m, so unlike a summit on a boundary there is no doubt about whose rules apply.65
The one line on the cadastre worth acting on is the potential watercourse space along the Radeinbach, whose edge runs 42 m from the bench. It restricts building rather than camping, but it is a good reason to keep your tent and everything you wash well back from the stream anyway.5
How to do it here
Getting there. From Vättis, 3'736 m away and 700 metres lower, or shorter from the Vättnerberg cable car and then up past Calvina. Either way the last stretch is trackless: the nearest marked trail is a kilometre off, and the slope you cross to reach the bench is the 33 to 40 degree grass the place is named after. This is a spot for people who are comfortable on steep wet grass in the dark, and it is a bad one to reach at dusk in the rain.6
The wild hay is the thing to get right
The ordinance calls this terrace the highest cultural landscape in canton St. Gallen still worked in the traditional way, and what it means is Wildheu: steep meadows cut by hand, late in the summer, by people who climb up to do it. The Ortsgemeinde Vättis holds the alps Calvina, Ladils and Gelbberg here along with the commons.57
So the practical rule on this bench is not a legal one. Do not pitch on standing hay. If the grass is long and uncut, you are standing in somebody's crop and one tent flattens a patch of it for the season. Grazed or already-mown ground is fine, and so is late in the year. If you want to be certain rather than careful, the Ortsgemeinde Vättis is a small office in the village and a phone call settles it: Langgasse 29, 7315 Vättis.7
Water, fire, and getting out
The Radeinbach is the water, 182 m below the bench. Treat it, and do your washing away from it. No fire. Nothing in the ordinance bans one at this point, but you are on hay meadow at 2'159 m in a commune whose only fire rules are written for nature reserves, and a fire here would be the one thing that turns a shrug into a rule. Take everything out, including the obvious.
If the bench is occupied or the weather turns
There is no second flat option inside 800 m; the grid says so. The realistic fallbacks are down: the Vättnerberg terrace between 1'600 and 1'800 m, or Vättis itself. Both are a long way in the dark from here, which is the argument for arriving in daylight.
General rules for wild camping
You are above the tree line on hand-worked hay meadow with no infrastructure, on ground nobody has yet had to make a rule about. That is a privilege and it is fragile:
- 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.
Lawful here is a verified absence, not a permission. It holds as long as Pfäfers and the canton leave it alone, and both can legislate. Check the two links before a trip rather than trusting a page you read once.
The verdict describes the bench at LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635, 2'159 m. It does not describe the Calfeisental, 1.6 km west, where the same ordinance does forbid tents.
Frequently asked questions
Is wild camping allowed at the Ritzplanggen?
What is P. 2159 and why does it matter?
Is the Calfeisental the same answer?
Do I need anyone's permission?
Is there a season when it is closed?
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 3 September 2026 at LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635, terrain surface 2'159.4 m via the federal height service, commune Pfäfers at the point from the current-year municipal boundary layer. Identify returns empty results for federal game reserves, wildlife rest zones, the BLN landscape inventory, raised bogs, fens, mire landscapes, floodplains, dry grasslands and pastures, amphibian spawning sites, Ramsar sites, Emerald sites, parks of national importance, biosphere reserves and forest reserves. Nearest objects by ring distance: game reserve Graue Hörner no. 15 at 2'732 m, wildlife rest zone Dreher-Branggis-Hochrütiwald no. 91.0 at 2'630 m, UNESCO Tectonic Arena Sardona at 596 m, forest reserve Radeinbachtobel at 1'699 m, dry meadow "Planggen" at 2'291 m. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id, which returns HTTP 400 while all real layers return HTTP 200, and a positive control point inside federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental correctly returns that polygon. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Schutzverordnung der Gemeinde Pfäfers, protection provisions and annexes, as published in the cantonal register of communal acts. Art. 8 (Naturschutzgebiete) prohibits, among other things, "die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Freizeitzwecken, wie Lagern, Zelten, Campieren und das Anfachen von Feuer, ausser an den bezeichneten Stellen". Art. 17 (Lebensräume, a) Kerngebiete) lists its prohibitions without any camping term. Art. 18 is headed "b) Kerngebiet Calfeisental (LRK 4)" and adds "die Nutzung zu Erholungs- und Ferienzwecken, wie zelten, campieren und das Anfachen von Feuer" for that one area. Art. 20 closes the wildlife rest zones from 16 December to the end of the ski season. Art. 28 refers breaches to art. 24 ff. of the federal Nature and Cultural Heritage Act and art. 132 of the cantonal Planungs- und Baugesetz. The annex lists the four core habitats: LRK 1 "Nord: Vättnerberg", described as "Terrasse am Muntaluna nördlich von Vättis mit Mähwiesen und prachtvollen Wildheuwiesen, Reichtum an alpiner Flora, höchste noch in traditioneller Art genutzte Kulturlandschaft des Kantons St. Gallen"; LRK 2 "Süd: Simel"; LRK 3 "Ost: St. Margrethenberg-Vättis"; LRK 4 "Calfeisental". oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Cantonal law of St. Gallen, read in full on 3 September 2026 through the official register's JSON interface, with the text lowercased before scanning and control terms confirmed in each act. Polizeigesetz sGS 451.1: the only occurrences of "übernacht" are in art. 52bis, the hotel registration form for overnight guests. Übertretungsstrafgesetz sGS 921.1: no camping term at all, so no cantonal fixed penalty exists. Naturschutzverordnung sGS 671.1, Jagdgesetz sGS 853.1, Einführungsgesetz zur eidgenössischen Waldgesetzgebung sGS 651.1 and its ordinance sGS 651.11: silent. Planungs- und Baugesetz sGS 731.1: art. 17 names "Camping- und Zeltplätze" among the facilities of an intensive-recreation zone, and the permit-exemption list covers single mobile homes and caravans outside licensed sites for under three months a year and mobile structures such as marquees and tents for at most three months a year. gesetzessammlung.sg.ch. ↩
- Communal acts of Pfäfers, complete collection on the cantonal publication platform, 29 acts downloaded and read on 3 September 2026 with per-file control counts recorded so that a silent file is distinguishable from an unread one. There is no Polizeireglement in the collection. Camping terms appear in three files: the Schutzverordnung, which is the operative one; the Kurtaxenreglement, which charges an annual flat visitor's tax on "Standplätze für Zelte, Wohnwagen und Wohnmobile" payable by the owner or long-term tenant of a pitch; and the Abfallreglement, which routes campsite waste collection. One file with a low text yield, the fee table for building matters, was read line by line and contains only fees. publikationen.sg.ch. ↩
- Cadastre of public-law restrictions on landownership (ÖREB) for canton St. Gallen, extract with geometry taken 3 September 2026 for EGRID CH227778489746, parcel 215 in Pfäfers, land register area 25'809'850 m². Because a parcel of that size says nothing about a single point, all 291 restrictions were tested point-in-polygon at LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635. Geometry audit: 288 carry Surface geometry and every one was tested, the remaining three being Point type, so no area restriction was skipped. Covering the point: "BauG Landwirtschaftszone", "Lebensraum Kerngebiet LR K" and noise sensitivity level III. The parcel carries five core-habitat polygons; the covering one measures 12'037'848 m² and spans LV95 easting 2'747'485 to 2'755'165 and northing 1'197'540 to 1'205'878, the terrace north and east of Vättis, while the Calfeisental body spans easting 2'737'879 to 2'749'087. Ring distances from the point: potential watercourse space 42 m, other communal territory 82 m, Geotop protection area 987 m, forest indication 1'307 m, forest reserve 1'699 m, forest protection area 1'974 m, nature reserve (dry, poor pasture) 2'291 m. Nearest other commune: Bad Ragaz at 2'506 m, by ray casting on the current-year municipal boundary layer. oereb.geo.sg.ch. ↩
- Terrain, queried 3 September 2026 through the federal elevation profile service on the 2 metre terrain model. A 25 metre grid over an 800 by 800 metre box centred on the gazetteer point returns 1'089 samples with a median slope of 36.0 degrees and elevations from 1'978.0 to 2'633.5 m; the single sample under 10 degrees reads 7.9 degrees at 2'158.8 m, 135 m from the label point. A 10 metre grid over the same shelf returns 1.8 degrees at 2'159.4 m at LV95 2'750'680 / 1'200'635, with neighbouring cells at 4.4, 4.9, 5.4, 5.7 and 6.7 degrees. The gazetteer point itself reads 33.2 degrees at 2'167.1 m, with 100 metre samples from 24.6 to 42.9 degrees and 250 metre samples up to 58.0. Distances from the bench: Radeinbach 182 m, nearest registered building 975 m (Calvina, non-residential, from the federal register of buildings and dwellings), nearest marked hiking trail 1'022 m, Calvina 790 m, Ladils 1'482 m, Muntaluna 2'192 m, Vättnerberg 2'654 m, Vättis 3'736 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Ortsgemeinde Vättis, which holds the alps Calvina, Ladils and Gelbberg together with the commons on this side of the valley, and whose territory runs from the Schüelabrücke to the Gigerwald. Office: Langgasse 29, 7315 Vättis. ortsgemeinde-vaettis.ch. ↩