Mont Ruan, Mountain summit in Salvan, Switzerland

Mont Ruan is a 3,056 m summit of the Giffre massif in the Swiss canton of Valais, close to the French border. It stands at a tripoint of ridges, flanked by the tour Sallière to the east, the Petit Ruan to the west and the tour de Prazon to the south. It overlooks the Susanfe alpine pasture to the north, the Barberine valley to the south-east and the Bout du Monde cirque to the south-west.

In 1834 Jacques Balmat, one of the first ascenders of Mont Blanc, disappeared on the slopes of Grand Ruan. Nineteenth-century maps label the summit "Roan", a name read as Celtic for "domain of the very great". The peak stands at the tripoint of ridges above the Susanfe alp, the Barberine valley and the Bout du Monde cirque.

The name Ruan derives from the 19th-century spelling "Roan", probably Celtic for "domain of the very great", a religiously coloured oronym. The summit stands at the tripoint of ridges above the Susanfe alp, the Barberine valley and the Bout du Monde cirque, where routes meet from the Swiss and French sides.

Reaching this summit requires solid mountaineering skills and proper preparation. Shelter and supplies are available at the Cabane de Susanfe mountain hut located northwest of the peak.

Jacques Balmat, one of the first climbers to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, disappeared on the slopes of Grand Ruan in 1834. The mountain also carries several glaciers despite only just exceeding the usual altitude for permanent snow in the northern Alps, around 2,900 m: the Ruan glacier on the French sun-facing slope, the Fonds glacier on the Swiss side and the Mont Ruan glacier on the Swiss shaded slope.