French for 'tooth of the giant' — the granite tooth of the Géant rises starkly above the Col du Géant, the high pass that has carried the same name since at least the 16th century. The 'giant' belongs to local folklore rather than any single legend.
Striking rock tooth on the Rochefort ridge between the Mont Blanc massif's French and Italian sides; the normal route climbs the south-west face on fixed ropes.
Long considered unclimbable — Mummery famously wrote 'absolutely inaccessible by fair means' in the visitor's book at the Col du Géant after his 1880 attempt — the Géant's vertical granite tooth was finally taken on 29 July 1882 by an Italian party led by the brothers Sella, who used fixed ropes and iron pegs hammered into cracks by the Maquignaz guides over several days of preparation. The fixed ropes are still there in spirit: the modern voie normale follows the Sella party's line and is festooned with thick installed ropes that make the summit slabs accessible to competent scramblers.
Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.
