Grand Ballon, Mountain summit in Haut-Rhin, France

Grand Ballon is a rounded granite summit in the Vosges, rising to 1,424 metres and forming the range's highest point. Its upper slopes are snow-covered in winter, with ski trails visible, and a small domed radar building stands near the top beside two thin masts. Dense forest covers the lower flanks.

The summit holds a memorial for the Chasseurs Alpins, French mountain troops who defended this strategic location during World War I. This presence reflects the mountain's importance as a site of military conflict during early twentieth-century warfare.

The summit sits within the Regional Natural Park of the Ballons des Vosges, where visitors find themselves surrounded by Alsatian mountain traditions and local food culture. The landscape draws hikers who use the marked paths as places for outdoor connection and rest.

Multiple marked walking trails reach the summit from different starting points, with winter access more reliable via the Willer sur Thur or Goldbach routes. Visitors should prepare for changing weather and bring sturdy shoes and protective clothing.

On 1 May, the feast of the Celtic god Belenus, the sun rises exactly over the Grand Ballon as seen from the Alsatian Belchen, another summit of the same name. The peak also carries a memorial to the Blue Devils, a mountain infantry battalion of World War I, inaugurated by Raymond Poincaré in 1927, destroyed by the Germans in September 1940 and restored by the sculptor Bouret in October 1960.