Wild camping in the Saastal

Wild camping in the Saastal: four communes, one valley

Wild camping in the Saastal is a question about a whole valley. The Saastal is the valley of the Saaser Vispa in Valais, and from Saas-Balen up it belongs to four communes: Saas-Balen, whose village lies at 1'483 m, Saas-Grund at 1'559 m, car-free Saas-Fee at 1'800 m, and Saas-Almagell at 1'673 m, whose ground runs on past the Mattmark reservoir at 2'197 m to the Monte Moro pass on the Italian border. Above them stand the Weissmies, the Lagginhorn, the Allalinhorn and the Alphubel, all over 4'000 m.⁴

A valley has no single pitch, so the question is where a night would actually happen. Not in the four villages or on the valley floor, which are houses, meadows and larch and stone-pine forest below the tree line. Up the valley it happens at its head, at Tälliboden below the Monte Moro and at the south end of the Mattmark, on the scree around the huts, and by the lifts and alp inns: Kreuzboden above Saas-Grund, Spielboden above Saas-Fee, the Almagelleralp above Saas-Almagell. Those places decide the verdict, and in all four communes the rule is the same.⁴

The rule: one Art. 29 in four police regulations

Each of the four communes adopted a new police regulation in 2024 or 2025, and each carries the same article on camping, Art. 29 "Campieren". The Valais government homologated the regulations of Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen on 6 November 2024 and that of Saas-Almagell on 12 March 2025; Saas-Fee re-adopted its regulation on 15 December 2025, and it was homologated on 22 April 2026.¹

"Wer auf öffentlichem Grund und Boden ausserhalb der von der Gemeinde dafür bezeichneten Zonen campiert. 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."Police regulations of Saas-Fee, Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen, Art. 29 "Campieren", para. 1 and 2. In English: whoever camps on public ground outside the zones the commune designates for it. Camping means temporarily staying in tents, caravans or similar mobile and immobile installations; merely putting up tents or caravans also counts as camping.

So a tent is caught twice over: a night in it is camping, and so is merely pitching it, with nobody inside. The ban is written against public ground, öffentlicher Grund und Boden, outside the zones the commune designates for camping. None of the four regulations designates such a zone; Saas-Grund's zoning plan has a campsite zone, and that is where its campsites are.¹³

The fine runs from CHF 10 to CHF 5'000, under Art. 47 in Saas-Fee and Art. 40 in Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen; none of the four has a tariff. If an unlawful state is not removed within the deadline set, the fine can be doubled, up to CHF 10'000. Negligence is punishable too (Art. 1), the commune's police court judges (Art. 2), and anyone without a fixed residence in Switzerland can be asked for a deposit for the expected fine and costs (Art. 3).¹

Why the high valley is public ground

Art. 29 reaches only public ground, so everything turns on who owns the ground a tent would stand on. For the mountains, the Valais act implementing the civil code answers that:²

"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 from the point where they rise fall into the public property of the communes.

Federal law says the same from the other side: on land that cannot be cultivated, such as rock, scree, firn and glaciers, there is no private property unless someone proves otherwise (Art. 664 Abs. 2 ZGB). And the canton leaves the use of that public property to the communes' regulations (Art. 164 Abs. 2 EGZGB), which is where Art. 29 comes in.²

That is exactly the ground a tent would use up the valley. The level ground at the head of the Saastal is stream gravel, scree, moraine and lakeshore. None of it can be cultivated, and the cantonal act names watercourses, scree and lakes outright, so it is the commune's public ground and Art. 29 applies to it in full. Across the ridge in Zermatt, whose police regulation defines camping in the same words, the same reasoning makes a tent unlawful at the Stellisee, on the Oberrothorn and on the Breithorn.⁵²

One limit, stated plainly: alp pasture is not on that list. Grass that can be grazed is cultivable land, and in the Saastal it belongs to the Burgergemeinden, alp cooperatives or private owners rather than to the commune as public property. Whether a Burgergemeinde's pasture still counts as "öffentlicher Grund und Boden" under Art. 29 is untested, and none of the four regulations defines the term. A tent there needs the owner's yes in any case, and no Burgergemeinde or alp publishes one. Ask the owner if you must; we do not recommend it.²¹

Valais adds no ban of its own. Its building ordinance requires a permit only for tents outside an authorised campsite that stand for more than three weeks or number more than twelve, and one night is nowhere near. At the places below, no federal game reserve, wildlife rest zone or park applies. How the levels fit together is in the Valais overview and the national overview.²⁴

Without a tent: why a bivvy bag is no way round it

Art. 29 does not say "Biwakieren". It defines camping as staying "in Zelten, Wohnwagen oder ähnlichen mobilen und unbeweglichen Einrichtungen", in tents, caravans or similar mobile and immobile installations. A tent is caught. A bare bivvy bag is arguable as a similar mobile installation, not certain, and no court has decided it for the Saas communes.¹

It opens nothing in practice. A bivvy bag lies on the same public ground as a tent, and nothing here says a tentless night in the Saastal's mountains is allowed. A genuine, unplanned emergency bivouac is a rescue situation, not camping; a night planned for the view is not an emergency.

Place by place: where a night would happen, and what applies

• Tälliboden, 2'492 m, Saas-Almagell: no. The head of the valley, on the path to the Monte Moro pass, at 46.00692 N, 7.97673 E. Its level ground, about two hectares at 2'486 m just west of that point, is the braided gravel bed of the young Saaser Vispa, with grass islands, scree all round and the Monte Moro path along its west edge. Stream bed and scree are public ground, so Art. 29 applies.⁵⁴
• Mattmark, south end, 2'292 m, Saas-Almagell: no. At the Distelalp, 46.02073 N, 7.96184 E, the slope runs at about 23 degrees and the reservoir's flanks are steep and rocky. The nearest level patch, about ten by ten metres, lies about 100 m south-east, down at the inflow at 2'238 m. The lake and its streams are public ground, so Art. 29 applies there too.⁵⁴
• Almagelleralp, 2'192 m, Saas-Almagell: no. An alp hamlet with the Berghotel, its restaurant and the alp buildings, at 46.10101 N, 7.98463 E: nobody pitches a tent on an inn's doorstep. Higher up the Almagellertal, towards the Almagellerhütte at 2'894 m, the ground turns to scree, which is public ground under Art. 29.⁴
• Kreuzboden, 2'397 m, Saas-Grund: no. The ground is level, but it is the gondola station above Saas-Grund, with the gondola on to Hohsaas, two ski lifts and the Bergrestaurant within 200 m: a lift station, not a place to sleep. The scree above it, towards the Weissmieshütte, is public ground.⁴
• Spielboden, 2'452 m, Saas-Fee: no. The gondola station above Saas-Fee, with the Längfluh cable car and the Bergrestaurant beside it, at 46.09199 N, 7.89968 E: a lift station, not a place to pitch, and Saas-Fee's Art. 29 applies to the public ground around it. Go up for the marmots by the station, and sleep in the village.⁴¹
• The villages and the valley floor: no. Saas-Balen, Saas-Grund, Saas-Fee and Saas-Almagell lie at 1'483 to 1'800 m among meadows and larch and stone-pine forest, below the tree line. Roads, squares, car parks and the banks of the Vispa are public ground under Art. 29; the meadows and the forest belong to someone, and a tent there needs the owner's yes. The communes' own answer for a night in the valley is the campsites.¹³

Where you can legally sleep

• A campsite in Saas-Grund. Am Kapellenweg, Schönblick and Bergheimat, on the valley floor; the valley's tourism site lists all three on its campsite page.⁶
• A mountain hut. The Almagellerhütte SAC at 2'894 m above Saas-Almagell, the Weissmieshütte SAC at about 2'720 m above Kreuzboden, the Britanniahütte SAC at about 3'030 m on Saas-Almagell ground, and the Mischabelhütten at about 3'330 m above Saas-Fee. Book ahead with the hut.⁷
• The Berghotel at the Almagelleralp, 2'192 m. The inn on the alp above Saas-Almagell, on the way up to the Almagellerhütte.⁴
• In a motorhome: the camper area at the Mattmark. Run with the Restaurant Mattmark, from about 1 June to 1 November, CHF 37 a day plus a visitor tax of CHF 7, +41 78 262 88 41, mattmark2200@gmail.com. Its page does not mention tents, so do not count on pitching one there.⁶
• Not on the stream gravel, the scree or the shore. Tälliboden, the Mattmark and every stream bed and scree slope up the valley are public ground under Art. 29: CHF 10 to 5'000.¹²

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which in the Saastal means a campsite pitch, not the mountains. Take it to the huts as well: it is not legal text, it is decency and common sense.

• 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 October 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 verdict rests on the police regulations of Saas-Fee, Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen as the communes publish them, on the Valais act implementing the civil code, which makes rock, scree, glaciers, lakes and streams public ground, and on the terrain. Saas-Fee and Saas-Almagell publish their regulations with the date of homologation but without the government's decision, and Saas-Grund's zoning plan refers to a contract of 1970 for the nature reserve Grundbiel, Trift, Weissmies whose text and boundary are not published with it. The rules of the Mattmark reservoir's operator for its shore were not checked. No court has decided whether a tentless bivouac counts as camping under Art. 29, or whether the ban reaches pasture owned by a Burgergemeinde. Campsites, huts, prices and seasons change. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself 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.

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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.

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