Wild camping on the Schibenstoll: it depends, and a letter settles it
Most summit answers in this file end in the ground. This one ends in an office. Walenstadt restricts camping on public ground and hands the exception to its own chancellery in writing, and the protection zone that covers this summit says in as many words that it should stay open to walkers and climbers.
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 rule restricts, one zone opens, and neither is a ban
Start with the zone, because it is the surprise. The cadastre puts the summit inside a Lebensraum Kerngebiet, a core habitat area under the Walenstadt nature and landscape protection ordinance, with the nearest edge 2 m away. Read art. 12 and you find five prohibitions: large tourist or sporting events, buildings that impede the movement of animals, agricultural intensification, installations built to promote the area for recreation, and extraction or deposits. No camping term at all.2
Then the article ends with a sentence that is rare in this corpus:
"Kerngebiete sollen Wanderern und Bergsteigern nicht verschlossen werden, vertragen aber keine Gruppenveranstaltungen."Natur- und Landschaftsschutzverordnung der Gemeinde Walenstadt, art. 12, final paragraph. In English: core areas should not be closed to hikers and mountaineers, but they do not tolerate group events.
That is a communal ordinance saying explicitly that the protected zone stays open to individuals on foot and that what it cannot take is groups. It is not a permission to camp, and it is a long way from the "wildes Campieren ist verboten" that the same kind of zone produces in other communes.2
The same ordinance does ban tents, one zone over. Art. 5 lit. i prohibits "das Anfachen von Feuer, Lagern, Zelten, Campieren sowie das Überlassen von Standplätzen dafür" in nature reserves. The nearest nature reserve to this summit is 2'018 m away. Art. 20 sanctions breaches with arrest or a fine, intentional and negligent alike.24
The rule that actually bites: art. 18 of the police regulation
Walenstadt, unlike several of its neighbours, has a police regulation, and it has a camping article:
"Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ausserhalb von offiziellen Campingplätzen ist verboten. Die Gemeinderatskanzlei kann auf begründetes und schriftliches Gesuch hin Bewilligungen erteilen."Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Walenstadt, art. 18 paras. 1 and 2. Art. 33 para. 1: breaches are punished with a fine; para. 3 adds that negligent breaches and complicity are also punishable. The reglement itself sets no franc figure.
Note what it restricts: public ground. That is communal land in the technical sense, and an alpine ridge at 2'235 m is usually alp or private ground rather than public. The cadastre cannot settle it, because it records zoning and not ownership: at this point it returns "übriges Gemeindegebiet Restfläche" and a noise-sensitivity level, which say nothing about who owns the rock.13
So the honest position is this. There is a live rule, it is addressed to public ground, and it comes with a written route out that names the office. That is why this article says it depends rather than yes, and why the useful action is one email rather than a legal argument on a summit.
Everything else is clear
Federal: the only object at the pin is BLN 1613 "Speer - Churfirsten - Alvier", and the summit sits 3 m from its edge. The landscape inventory binds federal and cantonal authorities in planning decisions and carries no penalty for a walker. No game reserve, no wildlife rest zone (nearest Stöfeli 1'357 m), no bog, no floodplain, no dry meadow (nearest Schären 848 m), no park, no forest reserve. Controls passed.4
Cantonal: St. Gallen has no camping norm at all, and its summary-offences act, where a cantonal fixed penalty would live, contains no camping term. There is no cantonal fine to hand out here.3
The ground: one shelf, and the summit is not it
The Schibenstoll is the third of the seven Churfirsten counting from the east, and it behaves like one. The summit reads 43.3 degrees. Over an 800 by 800 metre box the median slope is 42.7 degrees and the ground drops from 2'235.1 m to 1'599.0 m. On a mountain like this the question is not whether the law allows a tent, it is whether the hill does.5
It does, in one place. A 25 metre grid finds a shoulder just below the top, and re-measured at 10 metres it resolves to 5.4 degrees at 2'219.6 m, LV95 2'740'740 / 1'224'306, about 81 m west-north-west of the summit, with 6.0 and 7.9 degree cells beside it. That is a small terrace, and it is the whole answer to "where".5
Around it: the nearest registered building is 674 m away on the Tschinglaweg, the Tschingla alp area begins 254 m off, and a marked path passes 4 m from the summit, one of 28 path segments inside a kilometre and a half. You are on the Churfirsten ridge route, which means you are visible, and it means the shelf is easy to reach and easy to leave at first light.5
The groundwater protection zones are worth one line: S3 at 151 m and S2 at 298 m, with an S1 at 554 m. None of them bans camping, and all of them are a reason to carry your washing water away from any spring and to take everything out.3
How to actually do it
Write to the commune first. Art. 18 para. 2 names the route in the text: a reasoned, written application to the Gemeinderatskanzlei of Walenstadt. Ask the narrow question rather than the broad one. "May I bivouac for one night on the Schibenstoll shoulder at 2'220 m on the following date, no fire, no group, gone at dawn" is answerable; "is wild camping allowed in Walenstadt" is not, and invites a no.1
Two things worth putting in the letter, because they are the commune's own words and they help: that art. 12 of the protection ordinance keeps core areas open to walkers and climbers, and that you are asking about one person or two rather than a group, which is the thing that article says the zone cannot take.2
If you get no answer in time, the honest fallback is the same one the ridge offers anyway: walk it in a day. The Churfirsten traverse is a long day rather than an overnight objective for most people, and the valley beds at Walenstadt and the alp at Tschingla are the sanctioned versions of stopping.
What not to do
No fire, and no group. Fires are prohibited by the same ordinance in its nature reserves, and on a dry Churfirsten flank in late summer a fire is the sort of thing that produces a new rule. A group is the one activity art. 12 names as incompatible with the zone, so a party of six on the shoulder is the version of this that gets the door closed for everyone.2
And do not read the protection zone as permission. "Not closed to hikers and mountaineers" is about access, not about sleeping. It is a good argument to put in front of the chancellery. It is not a substitute for asking them.
General rules for wild camping
You are on a marked ridge route inside a landscape inventory area, in a commune that answers this question by letter. All of that argues for being unremarkable:
- 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.
It depends is the accurate verdict: art. 18 of the Walenstadt police regulation restricts camping on public ground and provides a written permit route, and no published document says whether this ridge is public ground. That is a question for the commune, not for a map.
The communal collection holds three copies of the nature and landscape protection ordinance. Two carry a text layer, are identical at 44'132 characters and match the version the cadastre links; the third is a scan that yields no readable text. A term search over the scan in an automated sweep reported one hit for Biwak, and a dedicated re-run of the same scan returned nothing at all, so that hit was optical noise. There is no bivouac term in this ordinance and none is claimed here.
Frequently asked questions
Is wild camping allowed on the Schibenstoll?
Is there a fine?
Where would I actually sleep?
What does the BLN designation mean for me?
Is the Leistchamm the same answer?
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
- Polizeireglement der Gemeinde Walenstadt, art. 18 "Campieren": para. 1 "Das Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund ausserhalb von offiziellen Campingplätzen ist verboten"; para. 2 "Die Gemeinderatskanzlei kann auf begründetes und schriftliches Gesuch hin Bewilligungen erteilen". Art. 33 "Strafbestimmungen": para. 1 "Wer gegen das Reglement verstösst oder darauf gestützte Anordnungen missachtet, wird mit Busse bestraft"; para. 2 allows personal community service instead of a fine for minors; para. 3 "Strafbar sind auch die fahrlässige Widerhandlung und die Gehilfenschaft". The reglement is issued by the Gemeinderat on the basis of art. 10 para. 1 and art. 23 of the cantonal police act, art. 3 para. 1 of the Gemeindegesetz and art. 32 of the Gemeindeordnung, and sets no franc figure of its own. publikationen.sg.ch. ↩
- Natur- und Landschaftsschutzverordnung der Gemeinde Walenstadt, as linked from the cantonal cadastre. Art. 5 (Naturschutzgebiete) lists what is prohibited in nature reserves, including under lit. i "das Anfachen von Feuer, Lagern, Zelten, Campieren sowie das Überlassen von Standplätzen dafür", and under lit. l riding and driving off roads and marked paths. Art. 12 (Lebensraum Kerngebiet) describes core habitat areas as uninhabited refuges for endangered species and prohibits, among other things, large tourist or sporting events, buildings that impede the free movement of animals and the natural spread of plants, agricultural and alpine intensification, the construction of installations intended to promote the area as a recreation space, and extraction sites and deposits; it contains no camping term, and it ends "Kerngebiete sollen Wanderern und Bergsteigern nicht verschlossen werden, vertragen aber keine Gruppenveranstaltungen." Art. 20 (Zuwiderhandlungen): "Verstösse gegen die Bestimmungen dieser Verordnung werden mit Haft oder Busse bestraft. Strafbar sind vorsätzliche und fahrlässige Uebertretungen." oereblex.sg.ch. ↩
- Cadastre of public-law restrictions (ÖREB) for canton St. Gallen, extract with geometry taken 4 September 2026 for EGRID CH827798549435, parcel 2002 in Walenstadt, land register area 3'242'971 m², 116 restrictions with a geometry histogram of 111 Surface and 5 Line entries, so every area restriction was tested point-in-polygon at the summit. Covering the point: "BauG übriges Gemeindegebiet Restfläche", "Lebensraum Kerngebiet LR K" and noise sensitivity level III. Ring distances from the summit: potential watercourse space 115 m, groundwater protection zone S3 151 m, S2 298 m, S1 554 m, agricultural zone 406 m, forest indication 463 m, Geotop 1'053 m, Lebensraum Gewässer 1'438 m, "Naturschutzgebiet trocken A (Magerwiese)" 2'018 m. The cadastre records zoning and public-law restrictions, not ownership, so it does not answer whether the ridge is public ground. oereb.geo.sg.ch. ↩
- Official federal geodata and the cantonal register, queried 4 September 2026 at LV95 2'740'810.0 / 1'224'265.8, terrain surface 2'235.1 m, commune Walenstadt at the point. Identify returns the landscape inventory object "Speer – Churfirsten – Alvier", BLN object 1613, as covering the point with its nearest edge 3 m away, and empty results for federal game reserves, wildlife rest zones, raised and lowland bogs, mire landscapes, floodplains, amphibian sites, Ramsar and Emerald sites, parks of national importance, biosphere reserves, world natural heritage and forest reserves. Nearest other objects: wildlife rest zone Stöfeli 1'357 m, dry meadow Schären 848 m, fen Engenriet 2'714 m, forest reserve Josenwald 2'704 m. Every query ran alongside a deliberately invalid layer id returning HTTP 400 while real layers return HTTP 200, with a positive control inside federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental. Cantonal law of St. Gallen read through the official register: Übertretungsstrafgesetz sGS 921.1 contains no camping term, so no cantonal fixed penalty exists; Polizeigesetz sGS 451.1 mentions overnight guests only in art. 52bis; the nature protection ordinance, hunting act and forest acts are silent. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
- Terrain, queried 4 September 2026 through the federal elevation profile service on the 2 metre terrain model and the federal register of buildings and dwellings. The summit reads 43.3 degrees at 2'235.1 m. A 25 metre grid over an 800 by 800 metre box returns elevations from 1'599.0 to 2'235.1 m with a median slope of 42.7 degrees; the flattest candidates are 6.3 degrees at 2'045.3 m 202 m away and 7.7 degrees at 2'219.0 m 71 m away. A 10 metre grid over that second shoulder resolves it to 5.4 degrees at 2'219.6 m at LV95 2'740'740 / 1'224'306, about 81 m west-north-west of the summit, with neighbouring cells at 6.0, 7.9, 8.3 and 8.6 degrees. Nearest registered building 674 m (Tschinglaweg 108), the Tschingla area 254 m, nearest marked hiking path 4 m, with 28 path segments inside 1'500 m. geo.admin.ch. ↩