Off-trail hiking and camping in Switzerland

We don't have information about off trail hiking in Switzerland. In some areas it might be better than others. The best direction I can give would be to contact the Swiss Tourist Office or the tourist office in the areas he is going to ask about permission to go off trail and fish. Sorry we couldn't help more.

Much of Europe belives in the "freedom to roam" or "all man's rights" concept of land use.
Wikipedia: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam#Switzerland

Switzerland

The freedom to roam is guaranteed in Switzerland by the Swiss Civil Code. Some cantons however have more detailed regulations concerning the rights of access of otherwise not authorised people.
The Swiss Civil Code provides that forest and pasture are accessible freely for everyone, as long as there is no excessive usage. Except in special cases like the protection of young forest or biotopes it is not allowed to fence in forest areas. This also applies to private property. However, it is possible to make activities with excessive usage and possible potential to cause damage (e.g. events in the woods, access with cars) dependent on special authorisation. Similar regulations are in place for land which is not usable (e.g. stretches of water, rock, snow and ice), regardless of the land being unowned (i.e. being under the control of the canton and not able to be claimed as private property) or being in private hands.
It is further possible for the canton to restrict the freedom to roam to protect nature (e.g. the gathering of mushrooms, berries, wood, etc. in forests).

This is call "wild camping" in Europe and many websites such as myswissalps.com will say it is not allowed in Switzerland. But it is more complicated than that. There is no nation-wide prohibition on wild camping apart from one that applies to national parks, nature preserves, and military training areas. Regulations are set canton by canton, and one, Obwalden, forbids it entirely. Elsewhere he would have research the rules carefully.

There is a pretty informative discussion here:

http://www.englishforum.ch/travel-day-trips-free-time/5557-wild-camping-allowed.html

One person distinguishes between camping and bivouacking, which he says is allowed in the high mountain areas. I don't find that persuasive enough to give it a try myself! Others advocate the stealth approach, as in "don't get caught and you'll be OK." I don't like that one either. The best advice is to ask locally, and always ask permission from the farmer if you are near farms or cow pastures ( which includes a whole lot of the Swiss alps).

And watch out for cow pies when pitching a tent.

As for off-trail hiking, has he ever hiked in the Alps? They are lot more rugged than our Cascades. The valleys are separated by 14,000 foot peaks, impassable cliffs, and glaciers. Most of the doable routes have been used for centuries and are covered by trails and roads. Most of the land that isn't nearly vertical or covered in ice is used for farmland or pasture, even high in the mountains. So there isn't much wilderness there, other than the national parks where one cannot camp.

Would he consider trail hiking hut-to -hut? That is what people do there. There is a lovely route from the Lauterbrunnen valley to Kandersteg, over two major passes (Sefeinenfurke and Höhtürli) with SAC huts and mountain inns on the way. It is called the Alpine Pass route. He could continue past Kandersteg into the Gasterntal and then up and over via a glacier ( Petersgrat) to the LötschentL, but he should have a guide for the glacier traverse. Check alpine-center.ch for a description of the guided 2-day trip.

At lower elevations it should be possible to hike off-trail but it would be very difficult at higher elevations without serious mountaineering skills. The peaks of the Alps are very steep, rugged, and in many places, impassable without crampons, ice axes, ropes, etc - far more grandiose and rugged than the Cascades. Imagine mountains, capped by clouds, and then seeing more peaks above the clouds...they are massive. Unless your husband is very experienced with this I wouldn't recommend it. It is possible to hire guides though who will take him on the kind of hike he's interested in.
I would second the recommendation to try hut-to-hut hiking - there are beautiful, rustic huts all over the high alps that cater to those who want a backcountry experience. Here's a website to explore...Alpine Huts We've stayed in quite a few of them and have had great experiences and met fantastic people.

Others hit the nail on the head... "off trail" in the Alps is generally nearly impassible terrain. Most of the walkable area has been filled for centuries with pastures and trails. Particularly in the Berner Oberland. There's some forests, particularly at lower elevation between Interlaken and the Grindel and Lauterbrunnen valleys, and some patches of trees here and there in the valleys and on the slopes themselves. I guess you could walk "off-trail" through these... but why would you?

Now, there's a lot more wilderness areas in the Berner Oberland further to the south of the Jungfrau masif, but the valley walls render these pretty much inaccessible for most people. You would need to climb some rather jagged peaks to reach them, or fly in via helicopter.