Wild camping in Valais

Ask around and you will be told camping is banned in Valais. It is the most repeated claim about this canton and it is wrong. The rule people mean stopped being in force decades ago.

There is no cantonal camping ban in force in Valais. We looked: five cantonal acts, no camping provision in any of them.2 What is very much alive is communal: Zermatt and the four Saas communes ban camping on public ground, which in Valais includes the rock, scree and glaciers, and four communes above Lake Geneva ban it too, all with fines of up to CHF 5,000.

Where the folklore comes from

"Camping is banned in Valais" is repeated in forums, in trip reports and by people who genuinely believe it. We went looking for it in the cantonal law collection and it is not there. The police act (RS 550.1), the construction act (705.1), the forest act (921.1) and the nature protection act (451.1) contain no camping, bivouac or tent provision at all, and the tourism act (935.1) mentions camping only in its tourist-tax articles. The Zermatt police reglement, which does legislate camping, lists the cantonal acts it rests on and names no cantonal camping act either.

The practical consequence is that people avoid perfectly lawful ground in Valais while pitching confidently right where a commune really will fine them. The folklore points in exactly the wrong direction.

What replaces it is the ordinary Swiss position: no cantonal prohibition, so whether a night is lawful depends on the commune. Several of the most visited communes in Valais ban camping on public ground: Zermatt in Art. 43 of its police regulation, and all four Saas communes, Saas-Fee, Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen, in Art. 29 of theirs, with fines of CHF 10 to CHF 5,000.11

In Valais, ground that cannot be cultivated is public: rock, scree, snowfields, glaciers, lakes and every stream from its source belong to the communes (EGZGB Art. 163 para. 3).12 So where a commune bans camping on public ground, the ban reaches all of that ground above the pasture, which is exactly where a tent would stand. Altitude does not decide it: the treeline is no permission. The Saastal report goes through it place by place, and the Oberrothorn and Breithorn reports apply the same reading in Zermatt. Corrected on 2 October 2026: an earlier version of this page said a considerate single night above the treeline was fine and that few communes said otherwise.

Zermatt is the exception that catches most people

The Zermatt Polizeireglement of 2022 bans Campieren on all public ground in the commune, and Art. 43 para. 1 is explicit that the mere pitching of a tent already counts. There is no "but it was only for a photo" reading available. Art. 43 para. 3 does leave one door open, occasional camping away from authorised sites with the landowner's consent, but a lakeshore is public ground, so it is not a door at the Riffelsee or the Stellisee.

Enforcement is real and unusually thorough: night checks are flown by drone. There is no tariff. The reglement's own range is Art. 49 para. 2, CHF 10 to CHF 5,000,1 and the one reported figure, CHF 200 per tent, comes from a 2019 newspaper report on earlier interventions near the Hörnli and Monte Rosa huts.10 Leave a mess and Art. 39 para. 4 puts the cleaning and restoration costs on top, though that article is about soiling and littering rather than camping.

This catches people because Zermatt is where the famous photographs are. The Riffelsee and the Stellisee are both inside the commune, and both are prohibited. A Zermatt ranger has asked us directly to stop presenting the Riffelsee as a wild camping spot, and that request is why we do not.

Another one: four communes above Lake Geneva

Vouvry and three neighbouring communes share a police reglement. Being straight about this one: the reglement is not published on any commune or police page we could reach, so the article number and the ceiling below come from our own spot research rather than from the text, and we have not read them.3 This is what makes Le Grammont, a popular sunrise objective above Lake Geneva, prohibited.

It also has a feature worth knowing: Art. 4 al. 2 extends the reglement onto private land, which means the landowner's consent is not a route out here. In most of Switzerland asking the owner is the fix. In these four communes it is not.

Tent or bivouac: Valais splits its own words

The one cantonal instrument that does price camping is easy to misread. The nature protection ordinance carries a fixed-penalty list whose item no. 6 fines tenting and camping "in einem Gebiet, in dem dies verboten ist", in an area where it is banned, at Fr. 50. It presupposes an area-specific protection decision; it is not a general ban. And its two language versions diverge: the French text reads "Bivouaquer et camper", expressly fining the bivouac, while the German names only tents and camping.6

The area decisions themselves cut both ways. The oldest explicit bivouac ban we know of in Switzerland is the 1961 Derborence protection decision, which names only bivouacking: "In diesem Gebiet ist es verboten, ... zu biwakieren, Feuer anzuzünden, Abfälle liegen zu lassen".7 The hunting law goes the other way: its implementing regulation expressly permits carrying and temporarily pitching bivouac tents in the open hunting area, other rules reserved.8

And the model clause several Valais communes use, read in full for Val de Bagnes and Evolène, reaches wider than any single verb: camping, caravaning "et ce qui leur est assimilable", and whatever is comparable to them, are banned outside authorised sites.9 Under that catch-all a bivouac is a bad bet. Wording, more than anywhere else, decides in this canton.

The rest of the canton

Where a commune has no camping ban, a considerate single night can be lawful: Finhaut's police regulation has no camping article, and the Lac d'Emosson report rests on exactly that reading. So before you go, read the police regulation of the commune you will sleep in, and check the federal hunting-ban districts and the wildlife rest zones, where they are mapped.

One local detail that is often mixed up with camping law: since June 2024 overnight parking at the Emosson dam is banned. That is a parking rule, not a camping rule, and it does not change whether you may sleep up on the mountain. It does change where you leave the car.

How it plays out

Five Valais spots researched in full. Every prohibition among them is communal, none is cantonal.

  • Lac d'EmossonReport

    An intentional high camp at 2,263 m with no cantonal ban, no communal ban and nothing federal at the pin. The 2024 overnight parking ban at the dam is a separate, non-camping rule.

  • Lacs de FenêtreReport

    Orsières restricts camping to designated sites and then hands wild camping to cantonal law, which has no ban. The report follows the commune's own wording to its end.

  • RiffelseeReport

    Inside Zermatt. Art. 43 of the 2022 police regulation, fines of CHF 10 to CHF 5,000. A ranger asked us to stop promoting it, which we respect.

  • StelliseeReport

    The same Zermatt norm as the Riffelsee. Art. 43 para. 1 makes the mere pitching of a tent enough, and the private-land exception in para. 3 cannot reach a public lakeshore.

  • Le GrammontReport

    Vouvry and three neighbouring communes, Art. 56 al. 2, up to CHF 5,000. Art. 4 al. 2 reaches private land too, so consent is not a way around it.

Somewhere else in Valais?

Put it into the wild camping check. Valais is the canton where the general answer and the local answer diverge most, so the spot-level report is worth more here than almost anywhere.

Is wild camping banned in Valais?
Not at cantonal level. There is no cantonal camping ban in force. We read the police act, the construction act, the forest act and the nature act in full and found no camping provision in any of them; the tourism act mentions camping only for the tourist tax. Whether a night is lawful depends on the commune: Zermatt and the four Saas communes ban camping on public ground, which in Valais includes the rock, scree, glaciers, lakes and streams above the pasture, and four communes above Lake Geneva ban it too.
Can I camp at the Riffelsee or the Stellisee?
No. Both lakes are inside the commune of Zermatt, whose 2022 police regulation bans camping on all public ground. Art. 43 para. 1 states that the mere pitching of a tent already counts, so even a short photo pitch is caught.
What does a fine cost in Zermatt?
There is no tariff. The reglement's range is Art. 49 para. 2, CHF 10 to CHF 5,000,1 and the one reported figure, CHF 200 per tent, comes from a 2019 newspaper report on earlier interventions near the Hörnli and Monte Rosa huts. Night checks are flown by drone. Art. 39 para. 4 adds cleaning costs, but that article covers soiling and littering rather than camping.
Does asking the landowner help in Valais?
Usually yes, but not everywhere. In Vouvry and its three neighbouring communes, Art. 4 al. 2 extends the police regulation onto private land, so the owner's consent does not clear the prohibition there.

Sources

  1. Einwohnergemeinde Zermatt, Polizeireglement, homologated by the Walliser Staatsrat on 26 January 2022, read in full from the communal PDF. Art. 43 has THREE paragraphs: Abs. 1 defines Campieren and states that "das blosse Aufstellen von Zelten, Wohnwagen etc. faellt ebenfalls unter den Begriff des Campierens"; Abs. 2: "Das Campieren auf oeffentlichem Grund ist verboten."; Abs. 3: "Das vereinzelte gelegentliche Campieren abseits von bewilligten Campingplaetzen ist nur mit Zustimmung des Grundeigentuemers gestattet." There is no Abs. 4. Art. 49 Abs. 2 sets the fine at CHF 10 to CHF 5000. Art. 39 Abs. 4, in the article on keeping public ground clean, is what makes an offender pay cleaning and restoration costs. gemeinde.zermatt.ch. ↩
  2. Canton Valais law collection, read in full via the lex.vs.ch API on 3 August 2026: Loi sur la police cantonale (RS 550.1), Loi sur les constructions (705.1), Loi sur les forets (921.1) and Loi sur la protection de la nature, du paysage et des sites (451.1) contain no camping, campement, bivouac or tente provision at all. The Loi sur le tourisme (935.1) mentions camping three times, all in the tourist-tax articles. The Zermatt police reglement lists the cantonal acts it rests on and names no cantonal camping act either. lex.vs.ch. ↩
  3. The four communes above Lake Geneva that share a police force are Vionnaz, Vouvry, Port-Valais and Saint-Gingolph, confirmed through the Police Intercommunale du Haut-Lac. Their joint reglement is not published on any commune or PIHL page we could reach, so the article number and the exact ceiling are reported from the spot research rather than read here. achl.ch. ↩
  4. Verordnung ueber die eidgenoessischen Jagdbanngebiete (VEJ, SR 922.31), Art. 5 Abs. 1 lit. e: "Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten. Vorbehalten bleibt die Benutzung offizieller Zeltplaetze. Die Kantone koennen Ausnahmen bewilligen." The prohibition is federal, so no cantonal or communal permission reaches inside a hunting-ban district. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩
  5. Ordnungsbussenverordnung (OBV), Anhang 2, Ziff. 12005: "Freies Zelten oder Campieren in eidgenoessischen Jagdbanngebieten (Art. 18 Abs. 1 Bst. e und Abs. 3 JSG, Art. 5 Abs. 1 Bst. e VEJ)", CHF 150. Ziff. 12003 covers wildlife rest zones at the same amount. Read in the consolidated PDF on 3 August 2026. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩
  6. Verordnung ueber den Natur- und Heimatschutz vom 20.09.2000 (SGS/VS 451.100), Anhang 4 (zu Art. 37a Abs. 1 und 40 Abs. 2), Ordnungsbussenliste Nr. 6. German version: "Das Zelten und Campieren in einem Gebiet, in dem dies verboten ist: Fr. 50". French version of the same item: "Bivouaquer et camper dans un site avec interdiction: Fr. 50". The item presupposes an area-specific ban imposed by a protection decision. lex.vs.ch. ↩
  7. Entscheid betreffend den Schutz der Waldung und der Landschaft von Derborence vom 30.03.1961 (SGS/VS 451.114), Art. 2: "In diesem Gebiet ist es verboten, ... zu biwakieren, Feuer anzuzuenden, Abfaelle liegen zu lassen ..." (FR: "... de bivouaquer, de faire du feu, d'abandonner tout dechet ..."). Names only bivouacking, no tent or camping verb at all. lex.vs.ch. ↩
  8. Reglement d'execution de la loi sur la chasse vom 16.06.2021 (SGS/VS 922.100), Art. 31 Ziff. 9: "Das Mitfuehren und voruebergehende Aufstellen von Biwakzelten im freien Jagdgebiet ist gestattet. Vorbehalten bleiben andere diesbezuegliche gesetzliche Bestimmungen (Forst, Raumplanung, Gemeindereglemente, usw.)." lex.vs.ch. ↩
  9. Commune de Val de Bagnes, Reglement de police du 9 avril 2024, Art. 55 al. 2: "Le camping, le caravaning et ce qui leur est assimilable sont interdits en dehors des emplacements autorises expressement designes comme tels par l'Autorite." Sanction: Art. 77, amende 10 a 10'000 francs. The commune of Evolene uses the same model text in Art. 54 of its 2018 police regulation (sanction Art. 78). valdebagnes.ch. ↩
  10. Rhone Zeitung, 16 August 2019, on twelve tents pitched at the Stellisee. The report says it is unclear whether those campers faced any consequences, most likely not. Its one franc figure comes from earlier interventions around the mountain huts, above all at the Hörnli hut and the Monte Rosa hut: the commune president says the fines came to CHF 200 per tent and the flight to the site was charged to those responsible. One reported figure, not a tariff. 1815.ch. ↩
  11. Police regulations of the four Saas communes, as the communes publish them. All four carry the same Art. 29 "Campieren": para. 1 "Wer auf öffentlichem Grund und Boden ausserhalb der von der Gemeinde dafür bezeichneten Zonen campiert."; para. 2 "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." None of the four designates a zone for camping. The fine is CHF 10 to CHF 5,000: Art. 47 para. 1 in Saas-Fee (homologated on 22 April 2026), Art. 40 in Saas-Grund and Saas-Balen (both homologated on 6 November 2024) and in Saas-Almagell (homologated on 12 March 2025). Saas-Fee (PDF), Saas-Grund (PDF), Saas-Almagell (PDF), Saas-Balen (PDF). ↩
  12. Einführungsgesetz zum Schweizerischen Zivilgesetzbuch (EGZGB), RS/VS 211.1, version in force since 1 January 2023, Art. 163 Abs. 3: "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." 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. Alp pasture, meadows and forest are cultivable land and are not on that list. Corrected on 2 October 2026: this page had said a considerate single night above the treeline was fine. lex.vs.ch. ↩