As of: 4 September 2026

Wild camping on the Schibenstoll

A bivouac on the Schibenstoll is possible, but the Walenstadt police regulation bans camping on public ground and lets the communal chancellery permit exceptions on a written application. The protection zone at the summit does not ban tents.

Leon Helg
Leon Helg · Legal situation checked in September 2026
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.

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

And note where it applies: on the summit, not on the shoulder. The commune line runs along the crest. The summit lies 2.9 m inside Walenstadt, so art. 18 and the CHF 80 apply there. The shoulder about 80 m west-north-west lies 4.7 m on the other side, in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann. That commune's police regulation has no camping article, and its protection ordinance bans camping only in nature reserves, none of them at the shoulder. Nothing in force bans a night there, and a letter to Walenstadt cannot cover it. A camping regulation the commune announced in July 2025 was not in force on 2 October 2026. Corrected on 2 October 2026: an earlier version had you ask Walenstadt for a permit for the shoulder.7

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: CHF 80. St. Gallen has no camping norm of its own, and its summary-offences act contains no camping term. But its fixed-fine list prices "Unberechtigtes Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund", unauthorised camping on public ground, at CHF 80 (sGS 962.11, annex Ziff. 21.6), under the heading for breaches of communal regulations. Walenstadt's art. 18 is exactly such a ban: a night on public ground here without the chancellery's permit costs CHF 80. Corrected on 2 October 2026: an earlier version said that no cantonal fine applied here.46

The ground: a shoulder at best, and no level spot

The Schibenstoll is the third of the seven Churfirsten counting from the east, and it behaves like one. Within 30 m of the summit the median slope is 40.6 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

Barely, and only for a bivvy bag. The shoulder just below the top, about 81 m west-north-west of the summit and just across the commune line, at 2'219.6 m, LV95 2'740'740 / 1'224'306, measures 15.6 degrees, with a median of 16.4 degrees within 30 m and 30 % of that ground over 30 degrees. A patch of 10 by 10 m there stays under 20 degrees, and that is the best of it. The nearest patch under 15 degrees is the summit cap itself, beside the marked path, and nothing within 200 m is under 10 degrees. Corrected on 2 October 2026: an earlier version called this shoulder a level terrace of 5.4 degrees.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 shoulder is easy to reach and easy to leave at first light. The nearest level ground is the Hinderrugg plateau, 722 m east of the summit and 71 m higher, in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann: wild camping on the Churfirsten.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

For the summit, 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 summit at 2'235 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. The letter covers Walenstadt ground only: the shoulder across the line is not Walenstadt's to permit, and it needs no permit.17

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, sleep where you need none: the level Hinderrugg plateau, 722 m east, is Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann ground like the shoulder.7 Otherwise 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 summit 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 the summit 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?
It depends, and the deciding rule has a written way out. Article 18 of the Walenstadt police regulation prohibits camping on public ground outside official campsites, and its paragraph 2 lets the communal chancellery grant permits on a reasoned written application. Whether an alpine ridge counts as public ground is not something the cadastre answers. The protection zone that covers the summit contains no camping clause at all and says core areas should stay open to hikers and mountaineers. Article 18 applies on the summit, 2.9 metres inside Walenstadt. The shoulder 4.7 metres across the commune line is Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann ground, where no rule in force bans a night, though at 15 to 20 degrees it suits a bivvy bag at best.
Is there a fine?
On the summit, yes: CHF 80 for a night on public ground without a permit. Canton St. Gallen has no camping provision of its own, but its fixed-fine list prices unauthorised camping on public ground at CHF 80 (sGS 962.11, annex Ziff. 21.6), a tariff for breaches of communal regulations, and article 18 of the Walenstadt police regulation is exactly such a ban. Article 33 of that regulation punishes breaches with a fine and expressly covers negligence and complicity. The protection ordinance's article 20 provides for arrest or a fine, but its camping ban applies to nature reserves, and the nearest is 2'018 metres away. On the shoulder across the line, in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann, none applies: that commune has no camping ban for the tariff to attach to.
Where would I actually sleep?
Not on level ground: there is none near the summit. Within 30 metres of the summit the median slope is 40.6 degrees. The shoulder about 81 metres west-north-west, at 2'219.6 metres and 4.7 metres across the commune line in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann, where no rule in force bans a night, stays under 20 degrees over a patch of 10 by 10 metres: bivvy-bag ground at best. The nearest level ground is the Hinderrugg plateau, 722 metres east of the summit and 71 metres higher, in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann: wild camping on the Churfirsten. The nearest building is 674 metres away and a marked path passes 4 metres from the top.
What does the BLN designation mean for me?
Nothing directly. The summit lies inside the federal landscape inventory object Speer, Churfirsten and Alvier, 3 metres from its edge. That inventory binds federal and cantonal authorities when they plan and decide; it carries no penalty for a person walking with a rucksack. It is context for why this ridge is treated carefully, not a rule you can breach.
Is the Leistchamm the same answer?
No, and the reason is the commune. The Leistchamm is the Churfirsten summit at the western end and lies in Amden, under a different protection ordinance, and that report comes out as not allowed on the ground rather than on a permit route. Walenstadt has a police regulation with a written exception, which is why this summit gets a different and more useful answer.
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.

Swiss Guide Wildcamping Checker Color Grading

Sources

  1. 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. ↩
  2. 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. ↩
  3. 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. ↩
  4. 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, and the cantonal fixed fine for camping on public ground sits in the annex to the Strafprozessverordnung (note 6); Polizeigesetz sGS 451.1 mentions overnight guests only in art. 52bis; the nature protection ordinance, hunting act and forest acts are silent. Corrected on 2 October 2026: this note had said that no cantonal fixed penalty exists. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  5. 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. 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. 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. Re-measured cell by cell on 2 October 2026 on the swissALTI3D 2 metre tiles (2026): within 30 m of the summit the median slope is 40.6 degrees. At the shoulder, LV95 2'740'740 / 1'224'306, 2'219.6 m, about 81 m west-north-west of the summit, the slope is 15.6 degrees and the median within 30 m 16.4 degrees, with 30 % of that ground over 30 degrees; a 10 by 10 m window under 20 degrees lies there, the nearest window under 15 degrees is the summit cap 76 m east-south-east, and none under 10 degrees lies within 200 m. The nearest level ground, under 5 degrees, is on the Hinderrugg plateau at LV95 2'741'529 / 1'224'195, 2'306 m, 722 m east of the summit and 71 m higher, in Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann. Corrected on 2 October 2026: this note had given 43.3 degrees for the summit and, from a 10 metre grid, 5.4 degrees for the shoulder. geo.admin.ch. ↩
  6. Canton St. Gallen, Strafprozessverordnung (sGS 962.11), annex "Ordnungsbussen", version in force since 1 May 2026 (issued on 31 March 2026): heading 21 "Widerhandlungen gegen Gemeindereglemente", Ziff. 21.6 "Unberechtigtes Campieren auf öffentlichem Grund", CHF 80, amended by the IV. Nachtrag of 10 December 2019 (nGS 2019-101). A tariff for breaches of communal regulations: it presupposes a communal ban on camping on public ground. Art. 18 of the Walenstadt police regulation (note 1) is such a ban. gesetzessammlung.sg.ch (annex). ↩
  7. Commune line and the law at the shoulder, 2 October 2026. Swiss commune boundaries (swissBOUNDARIES3D, current year 2026): the summit, LV95 2'740'810 / 1'224'265, lies 2.9 m inside Walenstadt; the shoulder, LV95 2'740'740 / 1'224'306, lies 4.7 m inside Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann, with the line running just south of it along the crest. Cadastre of public-law restrictions (ÖREB), canton St. Gallen, parcel Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann 1757A (EGRID CH907757867765), tested point in polygon at the shoulder: "Landschaftsschutzgebiet LS", "Lebensraum Kerngebiet LR K", agricultural zone and noise sensitivity level III, with a marked path at the point; the nearest nature reserve on the parcel lies 1'933 m away. Schutzverordnung Alt St. Johann (oereblex 17257), which governs that side of the crest: camping is banned only in nature reserves, Art. 12 para. 1 lit. k ("Lagern, Zelten, Campieren"); its articles on core habitat (Art. 8) and landscape protection (Art. 17) contain no camping term. Reglement über Ruhe, Ordnung und Sicherheit of Wildhaus-Alt St. Johann, in force since 1 February 2021: no provision on camping, so the cantonal tariff Ziff. 21.6 (note 6) has no communal ban to attach to there. The commune announced a camping regulation in July 2025; none was in force on 2 October 2026, as documented in this series' report wild camping on the Churfirsten. Corrected on 2 October 2026: an earlier version had you ask Walenstadt for a permit for the shoulder. oereb.geo.sg.ch (1757A), oereblex.sg.ch (Schutzverordnung), Reglement (PDF). ↩