Wild camping at the Spilauersee: lawful, and it is a working alp

No ban, and a landowner who says yes

Wild camping at the Spilauersee has an unusually clean legal answer, and the value is in being able to say what was checked rather than just asserting it.

Federal. Queried at the lake on 1 August 2026: no federal hunting-ban district, no wildlife rest zone, no BLN landscape, no mire, floodplain or amphibian object, no moorland. Two controls make that meaningful. A positive control at the Silberen reserve, roughly fifteen kilometres east, returns hunting-ban district no. 9, so the layers answer. An invalid-layer control returns an HTTP error rather than an empty set, which is the trap that turns a typo into a false all-clear. The Rothenthurm moorland object also fires as a control, so the empty moorland result at the lake is real.¹

Cantonal. Canton Uri has no general wild-camping prohibition. That is not my guess: Korporation Uri, the canton's largest landowner, states it in as many words on its official wild-camping page, and points instead to a handful of named local exceptions, none of which is here.²

The landowner. This is what makes the Spilauersee different from a spot that is merely un-prohibited. The alp is Korporation Uri ground, and the Korporation writes, verbatim, that camping on its territory is in principle permitted and needs no registration. The conditions are proportionate and easy to meet for one night: stays longer than three nights or with more than ten people must be notified to the Korporation in advance, protection-zone rules are observed, waste goes into the canton's paid disposal bags, the site is left tidy, and you contact the alp farmer if you are near a farm operation.²

So there is nothing to apply for and, for a single considerate night, nobody you are legally required to phone. Under Swiss law what no norm prohibits is permitted, and here the landowner has gone further and said yes out loud. At around 1'836 m on open, grazed pasture at the lake, a single night is exactly the case the Alpine Club's own position describes.⁴

It is a working alp, so pitch like a guest

Here is the part I would want to know if I were walking in tonight, because it is where a legal spot is either kept or spoiled.

The Spilauerseeli is not lonely wilderness. It sits on Alp Spilau, a serviced summer alp that runs roughly 1'750 to 2'100 m and grazes around sixty dairy cows, all of it on Sisikon territory. There are huts at the lake, an alp bar, and indoor mattress lodging for a handful of people, and the Gitschen cable car is about forty-five minutes away. This is a place with a caretaker and a routine, not an empty basin, and that changes how a tent reads.³

So the honest instruction is simple. Pitch back from the huts and away from the pasture in use, on the open ground by the lake rather than among the buildings, and tell the Senn you are there for one night. There are three operators you can reach directly: Furrer-Gisler, Bissig-Briker and Stadler. A courtesy word is not a legal requirement for one night, it is the difference between a camper who is part of the scene and one who is a problem to be solved. Korporation Uri's own conditions ask you to contact the alp farmer when you are near a farm operation, and at the Spilauerseeli you are.²³

Two practical notes. The cable car means this is not a hard-to-reach spot, so it sees visitors, and a tent set right at the lake shore among the huts is the kind that gets remembered. Go a little higher and a little back. And a private bivouac at the Spilauersee is documented in practice, from July 2015, so this is a real camp people actually make, not a theoretical one.⁵

The place, and one thing to get right

Lake: WGS84 46.923 N / 8.693 E, LV95 2'695'535.79 / 1'197'641.10, about 1'836 m at the pin, lake surface 1'837 m, Alp Spilau, commune of Sisikon, canton Uri, in the Rossstock massif above the Riemenstaldnertal. The basin is ringed by peaks between roughly 2'000 and 2'200 m: Rossstock, Gamsstock, Hagelstock, Siwfass, Hundstock.

One thing worth getting right before you go, because it trips people up: this is canton Uri, commune of Sisikon, not Schwyz. The Spilauersee lies in the Stoos-Muotatal tourism region, which faces the Schwyz side, and the Schwyz tourism pages carry a courtesy line that wild camping is generally not permitted across the Stoos-Muotatal region. That statement points to Schwyz cantonal rules, does not name the Spilauersee, and does not govern the Uri side. It is marketing, not a norm at the pin. The pin is on Sisikon ground, which is Uri, where the Korporation policy above applies.²⁶

What would change the answer: any camping ordinance that Sisikon itself might adopt. I could not verify one and will not invent an article number, so I am not citing a commune rule. The governing text I can stand behind is the landowner's own policy, and that is a yes.²

One thing I will not pretend to settle for you on the day: which corner of the alp is being grazed and cut in the week you arrive. That is exactly why you ask the Senn if you meet one. Their word on where to pitch beats any map, and it is how these places stay open.

Where you can legally sleep

• The open pasture at the lake, set back from the huts, for one night, with a courtesy word to the Senn².
• Higher up into the basin, away from the alp buildings and grazing, if you want a quiet night to yourself.
• The indoor mattress lodging at the Spilauerseeli, six places, if you would rather have a roof and a drink at the alp bar³.
• Not among the huts. Lawful, and the wrong choice: pitching in the middle of a working alp is exactly how a permitted spot gets a sign.

General rules for wild camping

This matters more here than at most spots, because here you actually may, and because the person whose alp you are on is standing a few metres away. The list below is not law. It is the reason the landowner still says yes.

• 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 August 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 absence of any prohibition at the federal and cantonal levels and on the landowner's published permission, and both of those can change. Korporation Uri could revise its policy, and Sisikon could adopt a camping ordinance; I could not verify a communal rule today and do not cite one. A stay longer than three nights or with more than ten people must be notified to Korporation Uri in advance. 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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