Col du Géant

The Torino Hut (Italian: Rifugio Torino; French: Refuge Turin) is a high mountain refuge in the Alps in northwestern Italy. Located near the border with France, it is about 15 km (10 mi) southwest of Mont Dolent, the tripoint with Switzerland. The refuge is in the Mont Blanc massif above the town of Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley, Italy. It can be most easily accessed from the Italian side by the Skyway Monte Bianco cable car from La Palud in Courmayeur, with a change at the Pavilion du Mont Fréty. It can also be reached from Chamonix via the Aiguille du Midi, either by cable car which crosses the massif, or by a long crossing of the Glacier du Gèant. The refuge lies nearly directly above the 11.6 km (7.2 mi) Mont Blanc Tunnel, which passes deep underground, and connects Courmayer to Chamonix.

Pointe Helbronner (3,462 m (11,358 ft)) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the Graian Alps on the watershed between France and Italy. The peak, which used to be a mere geodetic reference point, was named after Paul Helbronner, a French polytechnicien, alpinist and geodesist who pioneered cartography of the French Alps. Pointe Helbronner is served on the Italian side by the Skyway Monte Bianco, a cable car from La Palud, a village 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) north of the town of Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley. Pointe Helbronner is also served by the Vallee Blanche Aerial Tramway, which crosses from the peak to the nearby peak of Aiguille du Midi in France—a peak-to-peak distance of 5 km (3.1 mi). This, in turn, gives access to the French Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi, the cable car connecting Aiguille du Midi to the French village of Chamonix, Courmayeur's sister "city". The Skyway Monte Bianco station platform on Pointe Helbronner offers a remarkable view over the Aosta Valley and the Piedmont region. The French-Italian border splits this platform. Pointe Helbronner is the starting point of a ski run via the Glacier du Géant and the Mer de Glace to Montenvers and Chamonix. The mountain is the starting point of various routes to other mountains on the Mont Blanc massif, with many mountaineers staying at the nearby Refuge Torino. In June 2015, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi expressed repeated claims on the territory.

The Grand Flambeau (3,559 metres (11,677 ft)) is a mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps. It is situated at the head of the Géant Glacier, approximately 0.5 km (0.31 mi) east of the Aiguille de Toule, between the Col Orientale de Toule and the Col de Saussure. Its summit is one of a number which form part of the mountainous frontier ridge between France and Italy which runs eastwards from Mont Blanc towards the Grandes Jorasses and Mont Dolent. It can be readily accessed from the Torino Hut/Pointe Helbronner, either by its north or southeast ridges, and provides an excellent viewpoint.To the north, a satellite peak - the Petit Flambeau (3,440 metres (11,290 ft)) - rises a small distance above the Géant Glacier.

The Aiguilles Marbrées (3,535 metres (11,598 ft)), (French pronunciation: ​[eɡɥijmaʁbʁe], literally "marbled needles") is a mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif, above the Glacier du Géant, with its summits forming part of the frontier between France and Italy. It is situated between the Col de Rochefort and the Col du Géant, and is easily accessed from the Torino Hut at Pointe Helbronner. Seen from the north, the mountain has a triangular appearance. It contains two summits, the northern one being the highest. The lower, southern summit (3,483 metres (11,427 ft)) is separated by a broken rock ridge.: 138 

The Aiguille de Toule (3,534 metres (11,594 ft)) is a mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps. Its summit is one of a number which form part of the mountainous frontier ridge between France and Italy which descends eastwards from Mont Blanc and continues towards the Grandes Jorasses and Mont Dolent.It is situated at the head of the Géant Glacier. It lies east of the Aiguilles d'Entrèves (from which it is separated by the Col Orientale de Toule) and west of the Grand Flambeau (from which it is separated by the Col Occidental de Toule.) It is sometimes referred to as the Aiguille de Toula.

The Aiguilles d'Entrèves (3,600 metres (11,800 ft)) is a mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps. It is situated at the head of the Glacier du Géant, and its rocky summit ridge forms part of the frontier between France and Italy. It lies east of the Tour Ronde, between the Col d'Entrèves and the Col Occidental de Toule. It has a steep, sound face of red granite and can be readily accessed from the Torino Hut/Pointe Helbronner.

The Aiguille de la Brenva (3,269 metres (10,725 ft)) is a remote rocky mountain peak in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps. It lies wholly within Italy on a ridge descending south-east from the Tour Ronde. It has been described as "a spectacular fin with a fine E face". It stands on a ridge separating the Entrèves glacier from the Brenva glacier, yet is somewhat overshadowed by its larger neighbours, such as the Aiguille Blanche and the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey. Nevertheless, it is a distinctive peak, offering a number of very challenging climbs, especially on its east face which consists of vertical granite flakes and cracks. On its northern side stands a distinctive, slender rock pinnacle about 60 metres high, known as the Père Eternel. .

The Géant Glacier (French: Glacier du Géant) is a large glacier on the French side of the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps. It is the main supplier of ice (via the Vallée Blanche) to the Mer de Glace which flows down towards Montenvers. It gets its name from the nearby Dent du Géant.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian Traforo T1 (forming the European route E25), in particular the motorways serving Geneva (A40 of France) and Turin (A5 of Italy). The passageway is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on this tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. It reduces the route from France to Turin by 50 kilometres (30 miles) and to Milan by 100 km (60 mi). Northeast of Mont Blanc's summit, the tunnel is about 15 km (10 mi) southwest of the tripoint with Switzerland, near Mont Dolent. The agreement between France and Italy on building a tunnel was signed in 1949. Two operating companies were founded, each responsible for one half of the tunnel: the French Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB), founded on 30 April 1958, and the Italian Società italiana per azioni per il Traforo del Monte Bianco (SITMB), founded on 1 September 1957. Drilling began in 1959 and was completed in 1962; the tunnel was opened to traffic on 19 July 1965. The tunnel is 11.611 km (7.215 mi) in length, 8.6 m (28 ft) in width, and 4.35 m (14.3 ft) in height. The passageway is not horizontal, but in a slightly inverted "V", which assists ventilation. The tunnel consists of a single gallery with a two-lane dual direction road. At the time of its construction, it was three times longer than any existing highway tunnel.The tunnel passes almost exactly under the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. At this spot, it lies 2,480 metres (8,140 ft) beneath the surface, making it the world's second deepest operational tunnel after the Gotthard Base Tunnel. The Mont Blanc Tunnel was originally managed by the two building companies. Following a fire in 1999 in which 39 people died, which showed how lack of coordination could hamper the safety of the tunnel, all the operations are managed by a single entity: MBT-EEIG, controlled by both ATMB and SITMB together, through a 50–50 shares distribution.An alternative route for road traffic between France to Italy is the Fréjus Road Tunnel. Road traffic grew steadily until 1994, even with the opening of the Fréjus tunnel. Since then, the combined traffic volume of the former has remained roughly constant.

The Dent du Géant (It.: Dente del Gigante, "giant's tooth") (4,013 m) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in France and Italy. The Dent du Géant remained unclimbed during the golden age of alpinism, and was a much-coveted peak in the 1870s, repelling many parties who attempted it mostly from the Rochefort ridge. In 1880 the strong team of Albert F. Mummery and Alexander Burgener tried to force a passage via the south-west face but were repelled by a band of slabs, causing Mummery to exclaim, 'Absolutely inaccessible by fair means!'The mountain has two summits, 88 feet (27 m) apart and separated by a small col (an 'extremely awkward notch' according to W. W. Graham): Pointe Sella (4,009 m), first ascent via the south-west face by Jean Joseph Maquignaz with son Baptiste Maquignaz and nephew, Daniel Maquignaz on 28 July 1882. Over a period of four days they placed iron stanchions and fixed ropes, enabling the same party to climb Pointe Sella a second time on the following day with clients Alessandro Sella, Alfonso Sella, Corradino Sella and Gaudenzio Sella. Pointe Graham (4,013 m), first ascent by W. W. Graham with guides Auguste Cupelin and Alphonse Payot on 20 August 1882. They used the fixed ropes of "Sella's staircase" to repeat the ascent of Pointe Sella, where Graham noted that one of the Maquignazes had carved the letter 'M' on a rock step. They then lowered themselves 12 metres (39 ft) into the col to climb this higher north-east peak.This ascent marked the end of the so-called silver age of alpinism. On 28 July 1935 the Austrian climbers Herbert Burggasser and Rudi Leitz first ascended the vertical-to-overhanging 160 m-high south face. It was the first climb in the Western Alps systematically aided by the pitons and artificial techniques that were already in use by climbers in the Eastern Alps.During a heat wave in the summer of 2019, a glaciological rarity in the form of a previously unseen lake emerged at the foot of the Dent du Géant, the Aiguilles Marbrées and the Col de Rochefort at an altitude of about 3400 meters, that was considered as evidence for the effects of global warming on the glaciers in the Alps.The following facilities serve the mountain: Torino Hut (3,375 m, CAI, all year) Pointe Helbronner (3,462 m, téléphérique station for Skyway Monte Bianco)

The Tour Ronde (3,792 metres (12,441 ft)) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps, situated on the border between France and Italy. It is a prominent mountain, some 3.5 km north-east of Mont Blanc, but is effectively part of a continuation of the south eastern spur of Mont Maudit (l'Arete de la Brenva) which forms a frontier ridge between the two countries. It is easily accessible to mountaineers and provides not only a very good viewpoint from its summit of the Brenva face and the major peaks on the southern side of Mont Blanc, but it also offers a popular introduction to alpine climbing of all grades, including a north face ascent.

The Aiguille de Rochefort (4,001 m) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in France and Italy. The peak lies on the Rochefort arête between the Dent du Géant and the Grandes Jorasses and is usually climbed during a traverse of the ridge.The first ascent of the peak was by James Eccles and guides Alphonse and Michel Payot on 14 August 1873.