As of: 30 July 2026

Wild camping at the Schäfler: a tent fits, and you should still walk on

Appenzell Innerrhoden is one of the few cantons with no camping fine at all. That makes the Schäfler sound like an easy yes, and the reason it is not has nothing to do with the statute book.

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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.

What "wild camping" means here: one night. A small tent or a bivvy bag, up towards evening, gone in the morning. Not a base camp, not a camper van. Most Swiss bans are written against camping; whether a single night also falls under them depends on the exact wording, so this article checks that wording. The full difference: wild camping vs bivouacking.

The Appenzell rule, and the sentence in it people miss

Wild camping at the Schäfler starts from an unusual position. Appenzell Innerrhoden is one of the very few Swiss cantons where camping outside a licensed site is regulated but not punished, and the operative provision is a single paragraph from 1973.

"Das gelegentliche Aufstellen von einzelnen Wohnwagen und Zelten ausserhalb bewilligter Campingplätze darf die Dauer eines Monats pro Jahr nicht überschreiten und ist an die Zustimmung des betreffenden Grundeigentümers gebunden."Campingverordnung (GS 935.610), art. 4: the occasional erection of individual caravans and tents outside licensed campsites may not exceed one month a year and is tied to the consent of the landowner concerned.

Two things follow immediately. The route is the landowner's yes, which is why the useful part of this article is a name and a telephone number rather than a statute. And the article governs the erection of a caravan or a tent, so a tentless bivouac, which erects nothing, is not caught by art. 4 at all.1

There is no fine. The penalty articles of that ordinance, arts. 11 to 15, were each repealed on 31 October 2005 as part of the cantonal parliament's own revision of it, and nothing has replaced them. We checked the rest of the canton rather than assuming: a full-text search across every Appenzell enactment in force returns the word "Campieren" in exactly two acts, "Zelten" in three, and Biwak, Biwakieren, Nächtigen and Wildcamping in none at all. The police act, the ordinance to it and the contravention act contain no camping terms. The cantonal fixed-penalty list was revised on 31 March 2025 and came into force that July, and it still carries no camping entry.4

But "Appenzell has no camping fine at all" is a shade too broad, and we have written it that way before. There is one exception. The Standeskommission's decree on the Schwägalp and Fähnerenspitz mire landscapes says plainly that camping is prohibited, and a separate article provides an open-ended fine for breaches. It carries no tent qualifier, so unlike the Campingverordnung it would catch a tentless bivouac. It does not reach here: the Schwägalp perimeter is 2'875 metres west-south-west of this summit and the Fähnerenspitz one 6'756 metres north-east. The accurate statement is that Appenzell has no general camping fine, and one area-specific ban.2

The sentence people miss. Art. 6 para. 3 of the Campingverordnung applies the restrictions in art. 6 para. 2 to art. 4 as well. Those restrictions exclude, among others, terrain that is unsuitable by its nature, terrain exposed to rockfall, and areas of particular value on grounds of nature or heritage protection. The Schäfler sits inside the federal landscape inventory object for the Säntisgebiet, and its flanks average forty-three degrees. On the ordinance's own terms, then, this ground is excluded even with the owner's consent. There is no sanction behind that, and the application is by analogy rather than a direct prohibition, so we are not going to overstate it. But it does mean the consent route is not a clean yes at this particular summit, and that is worth knowing before you ring anybody.1

The commune adds nothing, and it used to add less than nothing. Schwende and Rüte merged in 2022, and the merger contract states that as of 1 May 2022 all reglemente of the former Bezirk Schwende are repealed. The Schäfler is on former Schwende ground. The new commune publishes seven enactments and not one of them mentions camping, tents, bivouacking or overnight stays. So the Campingverordnung's reservation for special district enactments is empty here.5

Where the federal reserve starts, and who to actually ask

The Säntis game reserve is the hard boundary in this massif, and it is further away than the map suggests. At the summit itself the federal reserve layer comes back empty. The integral-protection zone, where free tenting and camping is prohibited outright and no landowner's consent can help, begins 1'450 metres south-west of the top.6

There is a trap in that, and it is the sort that gets people the wrong answer. The nearest reserve-labelled polygon on the map is not the reserve. It is the Wildschadenperimeter, 874 metres north-north-west, the zone within which game damage is compensated, and the federal inventory sheet says so in terms. It carries no conduct rules whatsoever. So the shape on the map closest to you is the toothless one, and the one that matters is nearly twice as far in the opposite direction.6

For anyone walking the classic ridge from the Schäfler towards the Säntis: following the marked route, the first point inside the reserve is about 1'913 metres of walking, roughly thirty to thirty-five minutes, in the saddle below the Öhrlikopf. Everything beyond that towards the Rotsteinpass is inside. The whole reserve is integrally protected, so there is no partial-protection sub-zone to argue about.6

Inside it the number to plan around is CHF 150, the federal fixed penalty for free tenting or camping in a game reserve, not the CHF 20'000 that gets quoted; that figure is the Hunting Act ceiling if a case leaves the summary procedure.6

One instrument is brand new and worth knowing about even though it does not reach here. Appenzell enacted a Wildruheverordnung that came into force on 1 July 2025. It confines walkers to signposted paths during closed seasons, running from mid-December to the end of June at the latest, with a CHF 150 fixed penalty. It never says camping, but pitching means leaving the path. It creates exactly three zones, Chalberer, Marwees and Brugger Wald, and none of them covers the Schäfler. Note for anyone checking their own Alpstein spot: the federal wildlife-rest-zone map layer carries no Appenzell zone at all, so a point query on the national portal misses this entire ordinance.3

Who to ask, and it is a real person. The nearest working alp to this ridge is Altenalp, 448 metres due south of the summit at 1'597 metres, run by Familie Neff, reachable on +41 79 406 36 69. They have farmed it for around forty years, make six cheeses on the alp, and already take overnight guests in a hay barn, so the people holding that ground have both a hosting habit and a way of charging for it. Season is roughly mid-June to mid-September. For the summit side and the guesthouse parcel, Berggasthaus Schäfler is on +41 71 799 11 44.

Be aware you may be asking the wrong person if you only ask at the Gasthaus. Three separate parcels meet within a hundred metres of the top: the summit and the crest sit on one, the guesthouse and its outbuildings on another, and the ground to the south and south-west on a third. The canton's own survey of the alps inside the Säntis reserve found that twenty-one of twenty-nine are privately owned, so the holder here is most likely a private owner or a long-standing tenant, which is precisely why a phone call beats a theory about the land register.8

No fee exists, and neither does any account of anyone sleeping here. We searched for both. There is no informal rate for the Schäfler, and do not carry across the figures published for the Seealpsee or the Fälenalp, which are different arrangements on different ground. And across the walking portals, forums and blogs in two languages, nobody reports pitching at the Schäfler and nobody reports being moved on. Both of those are silences rather than evidence, and we are recording them as such.9

A tent fits. That is not the same as this being a place to sleep.

The terrain first, because the honest version is not the convenient one. Sampling a ten-metre grid across a three-hundred-metre radius, the median slope around this summit is forty degrees. Ninety-three percent of it is steeper than thirty degrees and only 0.8 percent is gentler than fifteen. Six metres off the crest you are on twenty to forty-five degree ground.7

And yet. Testing every two-by-three-metre footprint on a one-metre grid along the ridge against a best-fit plane, forty-three of just over three thousand candidates qualify, and they are all the same patch: a platform about fifteen metres along the ridge by thirteen across, tilted one and a half to six degrees, centred on the trig point. So the truthful statement is that a tent fits comfortably here, and this is the flattest ground for three hundred metres in any direction. The only other qualifying cell in the whole disc is 291 metres east and 122 metres lower, on the descent to the Ebenalp.7

Which is exactly the problem. That platform is the viewpoint. Seventy-five metres east of it stands the Berggasthaus Schäfler, three storeys, built in 1914, sleeping eighty-five people across fifteen beds and seventy dormitory places, with three farm buildings alongside it. The three Appenzell cableways carried 657'840 rides in 2025, Alpstein guests account for roughly a quarter of every overnight stay in the canton, and almost all of them are single nights. The canton's own assessment this May noted the Alpstein has seen high visitor numbers for years, particularly at weekends and on holidays.9

The guesthouse releases its rooms at five in the afternoon and clears them by eight in the morning, and its own photo gallery has categories for sunrise, sunset and night. Trip reports from this ridge start at half past five. A tent on that platform is in other people's photographs at both ends of the night, which is a different objection from a legal one and a more decisive one.

The ground that actually works is 1'260 metres south-west, a grass saddle at 1'858 metres that we already carry in the guide. We re-measured it independently for this article: it lies 192 metres outside the game reserve boundary on a bearing of 239 degrees, which reproduces our published figure exactly. It is out of sight of the guesthouse, off the main flow of the traverse, and it is where anyone who wants a night on this ridge should be heading.6

One thing that is not law but is worth reading anyway. Appenzell's tourism board publishes a line that the Alpstein is neither a tent site nor a campsite and that wild tenting is not permitted. It cites no article, and as set out above the canton has no camping fine outside one mire decree, so treat it as the destination's position rather than a legal statement. Its second half, though, points exactly where this article does: stay in a mountain inn or on the alp, and follow what the alp staff tell you.9

And there are rangers now. A pilot programme started on 14 May 2026, funded by the canton to a maximum of CHF 35'000 and running to 2028, with fifteen volunteers out at weekends and on public holidays. Wild camping is one of their named topics. The association's president put their powers accurately: they are not police officers. They will talk to you about it, and there is no cantonal penalty standing behind them.9

  • Berggasthaus Schäfler, on the ridge itself, +41 71 799 11 44. Fifteen beds and seventy places in subdivided cabin rooms rather than an open dormitory. Booking is online only, dinner CHF 25, hut sleeping bag CHF 5 and compulsory in the cabin rooms. No showers, no wifi, no sockets, rainwater supply. The 2026 season opened on 22 May, with Wednesdays closed from July.
  • The saddle 1'260 metres south-west, at 1'858 metres, 192 metres outside the game reserve, with the landowner's consent under the Campingverordnung. This is the honest answer to the question that was asked.
  • Altenalp, 448 metres south, Familie Neff, +41 79 406 36 69, which already takes guests in a hay barn in season.
  • Berggasthaus Ebenalp, Äscher, Seealpsee and Mesmer, all within an hour or two on the same massif, and all better answers than a tent on the viewpoint.
  • Not the summit platform, and not the ridge south-west of the saddle, which runs into the reserve.

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which in the Alpstein means with the alp's yes and away from the busy ridge. It is not legal text, it is decency and common sense, and on a massif carrying a quarter of the canton's overnight stays it is the reason the tolerance still exists at all.

  • 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 July 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.

Appenzell Innerrhoden enacted a new wildlife rest zone ordinance in July 2025 and its commune structure changed in 2022, so material written about this area before then may be out of date, and the federal map layer does not yet carry the cantonal wildlife zones at all. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, get the landowner's consent, 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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Frequently asked questions

Is wild camping allowed at the Schäfler?
It depends on the landowner, and the summit itself is the wrong place to ask about. Art. 4 of the Appenzell Innerrhoden Campingverordnung (GS 935.610) permits the occasional single tent outside licensed campsites, capped at one month a year, and ties it to the consent of the landowner concerned. There is no fine behind it: the ordinance's penalty articles were repealed in 2005. But art. 6 para. 3 applies the ordinance's zone restrictions to that consent route as well, and those exclude ground of particular natural value, which covers this summit. And practically, the only flat ground here is the viewpoint, 75 metres from a guesthouse that sleeps 85.
Is there a fine for wild camping in Appenzell Innerrhoden?
No general one, and one area-specific exception. The Campingverordnung's penalty articles were repealed on 31 October 2005 and nothing replaced them; a full-text search of every enactment in force finds no occurrence of Biwak, Biwakieren or Nächtigen, and the cantonal fixed-penalty list was refreshed in 2025 without adding camping. The exception is the Standeskommissionsbeschluss on the Schwägalp and Fähnerenspitz mire landscapes (GS 454.001), whose art. 5 para. 4 prohibits camping with a fine under art. 24, and which is 2'875 m from the Schäfler.
How far is the federal game reserve from the Schäfler?
1'450 metres south-west, and the nearer shape on the map is not it. The integral-protection zone of the Säntis reserve, where art. 5 para. 1 lit. e VEJ prohibits free tenting and camping regardless of any landowner's consent, begins 1'450 m from the summit on a bearing of 231 degrees. The polygon 874 m north-north-west is the Wildschadenperimeter, the game-damage compensation area, which carries no conduct rules at all. Walking the ridge towards the Säntis, you enter the reserve after about 1'913 m of walking, roughly half an hour.
Can you pitch a tent on the Schäfler summit?
Physically yes, and it is still the wrong place. Testing every 2 by 3 metre footprint on a one-metre grid, 43 of just over 3'000 candidates qualify and they form a single platform about 15 by 13 metres centred on the trig point, which is the flattest ground for 300 metres in any direction. It is also the viewpoint, 75 metres from a three-storey guesthouse sleeping 85 people on the busiest ridge in eastern Switzerland, where visitors arrive before dawn for the sunrise. The grass saddle 1'260 m south-west, at 1'858 m and 192 m outside the reserve, is the ground that works.
Does the ban catch a bivouac without a tent?
Art. 4 does not, because it governs erecting a tent or caravan and a bivvy bag erects nothing. But two other things do reach a tentless sleeper where they apply: the Schwägalp and Fähnerenspitz mire decree says simply that camping is prohibited, with no tent qualifier, and inside the federal game reserve the prohibition on free tenting and camping applies regardless. Neither covers the Schäfler summit, the first being 2'875 m away and the second 1'450 m.
Leon Helg

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

  1. Campingverordnung des Kantons Appenzell Innerrhoden (GS 935.610), original of 12 June 1973, current version in force since 1 January 2013, not abrogated. Art. 4: the occasional erection of individual caravans and tents outside licensed campsites may not exceed one month per year and is tied to the consent of the landowner concerned, with special enactments of the district authorities reserved. Art. 6 para. 2 excludes camping zones in the immediate vicinity of churches, schools, institutions and busy roads and squares, in areas endangered by flooding or rockfall, in areas unsuitable by their nature, and in areas of particular value on grounds of nature or heritage protection; art. 6 para. 3 applies those provisions by analogy to art. 4. Arts. 11 to 15, the penalty provisions, were each repealed by decision of 31 October 2005 in force the same day, as part of the cantonal parliament's own revision of the ordinance; the collection names no separately titled repealing act. ai.clex.ch.
  2. Standeskommissionsbeschluss über die Moorlandschaften Schwägalp und Fähnerenspitz (GS 454.001) of 3 April 2001, version of 9 May 2017, not abrogated. Art. 5 para. 4: "Das Campieren ist verboten." The fine is set by a separate article, art. 24, providing for a fine under the criminal procedure legislation without a stated ceiling. The prohibition carries no tent qualifier and would therefore catch a tentless bivouac where it applies. Scope is set by art. 1 para. 2, the perimeters on the two plans dated 31 October 2000. Computed against the federal mire landscape inventory geometry, the Schwägalp perimeter lies 2'875 m west-south-west of the Schäfler summit and the Fähnerenspitz perimeter 6'756 m north-east, neither containing the point. ai.clex.ch.
  3. Wildruheverordnung des Kantons Appenzell Innerrhoden (GS 922.012) of 31 March 2025, in force since 1 July 2025. Art. 4 requires walkers to keep to the officially signposted hiking paths and routes during the closed seasons and prohibits leaving them; art. 3 para. 2 sets those seasons to begin no earlier than 15 December and end no later than 30 June. The fine is set by the separate art. 10 and tariffed at CHF 150 in annex 1 no. 4a.1 of the cantonal fixed-penalty ordinance. The ordinance never uses the word camping, but pitching requires leaving the path. Annex 1 creates three zones only, Chalberer, Marwees and Brugger Wald, whose perimeter maps were read; none covers the Schäfler. Note that the federal wildlife rest zone layer carries no Appenzell Innerrhoden zone at all, so a point query on the national geoportal misses this ordinance entirely. ai.clex.ch.
  4. Canton-wide sweep of Appenzell Innerrhoden, 30 July 2026, by full-text search across every enactment in force. "Campieren" appears in two acts (the Campingverordnung and the mire decree above), "Zelten" in three, and Biwak, Biwakieren, Nächtigen and Wildcamping in none. The Polizeigesetz (GS 550.000), the ordinance to it and the Übertretungsstrafgesetz (GS 311.000) contain no camping terms. The cantonal fixed-penalty ordinance (GS 311.010) had its annex revised on 31 March 2025 in force 1 July 2025, and its tariff was read in full across its categories: there is no camping entry. The Baugesetz (GS 700.000) art. 32 covers "das länger dauernde Aufstellen" in camping zones, which a single night is not, and the article that sets its fine is the separate art. 91 with a CHF 50'000 ceiling addressed to building owners, site managers, contractors and their agents, none of which a walker is. What a camper can be fined for in Appenzell is littering (CHF 100), night noise (CHF 150) and public nuisance (CHF 200). ai.clex.ch.
  5. Bezirk Schwende-Rüte publishes seven enactments, all downloaded and searched: the Reglement über die Grundordnung, the Fonds für eine aktive Bodenpolitik, the Zusammenschlussvertrag, the Beschluss über die finanziellen Einzelkompetenzen, the Vergütungsbeschluss, the Gebührenbeschluss and the Videoüberwachungsreglement. None contains any camping, tent, bivouac or overnight provision. The Zusammenschlussvertrag, signed 24 April 2022, provides at art. 7 para. 3 that as of 1 May 2022 all reglemente of the former Bezirk Schwende are repealed, and the Schäfler lies on former Schwende ground, so the reservation in Campingverordnung art. 4 for special district enactments is empty at this spot. Contact: Bezirksverwaltung Schwende-Rüte, Pöppelstrasse 14, 9050 Appenzell Steinegg, 071 788 99 30. schwende-ruete.ch.
  6. Official federal geodata, queried 30 July 2026 at LV95 2'747'660 / 1'237'962. The federal game reserve layer returns empty at the summit; the landscape inventory returns object 1612 Säntisgebiet, subarea Innerer Alpstein; the wildlife rest zone, mire, bog, fen, floodplain, amphibian, dry grassland, park and bird reserve layers all return empty. Distances computed from the actual polygon geometry: the integral-protection zone of game reserve no. 16 Säntis lies 1'450 m from the summit on a bearing of 231 degrees, and the Wildschadenperimeter, which the inventory sheet describes as the area within which game damage is compensated and which carries no conduct rules, lies 874 m north-north-west. Following the marked ridge route towards the Säntis, the first point inside the reserve is about 1'913 m of walking, in the saddle below the Öhrlikopf. The whole reserve is integrally protected per the object sheet. The grass saddle at 47.2688977 / 9.3773688, 1'858 m, lies 192 m outside the reserve boundary on a bearing of 239 degrees and 1'260 m from the summit. Inside the reserve, art. 5 para. 1 lit. e VEJ (SR 922.31) prohibits free tenting and camping, the fixed penalty is CHF 150 under annex 2 no. 12005 of the federal fixed-penalty ordinance, and CHF 20'000 is the ceiling under art. 18 of the Hunting Act only in ordinary proceedings. Every query ran with an invalid-layer control returning HTTP 400 while valid layers with no hit return HTTP 200 with an empty result set. map.geo.admin.ch.
  7. Terrain, sampled 30 July 2026. A ten-metre grid over a 300 m radius gives a median slope of 40 degrees and a mean of 43, with 93 percent steeper than 30 degrees and only 0.8 percent gentler than 15. A cross-ridge profile at two-metre spacing drops from 1'925.0 m at the crest to 1'922.4 m at 6 m and 1'912.3 m at 16 m, so beyond about six metres off the crest the ground runs at 20 to 45 degrees. Testing every 2.0 by 3.0 m footprint on a one-metre grid rotated onto the ridge axis against a best-fit plane, with tilt under 15 degrees and roughness under 0.35 m, 43 of 3'042 candidates qualify and all form a single platform roughly 15 m along the ridge by 13 m across, tilt 1.5 to 6 degrees, centred on the trig point. The only other qualifying ground within the disc lies 291 m east at 1'803 m. map.geo.admin.ch.
  8. Ownership and consent. Three separate cadastral parcels meet within 100 m of the summit: the summit and crest, the guesthouse and its outbuildings, and the ground to the south and south-west. Swiss land register ownership is not public, so the holder cannot be established from open sources. The canton's own 2021 survey of the 29 alps inside the Säntis game reserve records that 21 are privately owned and 8 belong to corporate bodies, and that of the private ones 9 are farmed by their owners and 12 leased, often across generations. The nearest working alp to the ridge is Altenalp, buildings at LV95 2'747'645 / 1'237'514, 448 m due south of the summit at 1'597 m, farmed by Familie Neff for around forty years, producing six cheeses and already hosting overnight guests in a hay barn, season roughly mid-June to mid-September, contact +41 79 406 36 69. Two corrections to earlier notes: the name "Lötzelälpli" returns nothing in the national gazetteer and should not be used, and the Feuerschaugemeinde Appenzell is a special-purpose municipality for fire service, energy and water rather than an alp landowner. appenzell.ch.
  9. Setting and practice. The Berggasthaus Schäfler stands 75 m east of the summit, built 1914, three storeys, with 15 beds and 70 places in cabin rooms subdivided in 2006, plus three farm buildings alongside. Contact +41 71 799 11 44, booking online only, dinner CHF 25, hut sleeping bag CHF 5 and compulsory in the cabin rooms, no showers, no wifi, no sockets, rainwater supply, check-in 17:00 and check-out 08:00. The three Appenzell cableways carried 657'840 rides in 2025, Alpstein guests account for roughly a quarter of all overnight stays in the canton and are almost entirely single nights, and the cantonal government noted on 12 May 2026 that the Alpstein has recorded high visitor numbers for several years, particularly at weekends and on holidays. No account of anyone sleeping at the Schäfler was found across the walking portals, forums and blogs in two languages, and no informal fee or arrangement is documented; both are silences rather than evidence. The destination's own page states that the Alpstein is neither a tent site nor a campsite and that wild tenting is not permitted, citing no article, and directs visitors to a mountain inn or the alp and to follow alp staff instructions. A ranger pilot began on 14 May 2026 with fifteen volunteers at weekends and on public holidays, funded by the canton to a maximum of CHF 35'000 and running to 2028, with wild camping among its named topics; the organising association's president stated that the rangers are not police officers. schaefler.ch.

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