Glacier du Géant, Alpine glacier in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France

Glacier du Géant is a vast ice field in the Mont Blanc massif of the French Alps, stretching across high-altitude terrain above 3,000 meters. Its frozen surface is marked by crevasses and ice slopes that create one of the region's most challenging landscapes.

In 1862 the physicist and mountaineer John Tyndall reported to the Royal Institution on his studies of heat as a form of motion, measuring ice flow into the Mer de Glace by placing lines of stakes on the Géant Glacier and neighbouring glaciers. He published further accounts in his book 'Glaciers of the Alps'. In the early 1950s work began on the Panoramic Mont-Blanc cable car, opened at Christmas 1957, and a small ski area with three or four ski lifts ran on the upper glacier from the early 1960s until the 1990s.

The glacier takes its name from the nearby Dent du Géant. From the 1960s to the 1990s a small summer ski area operated on the ice below the Grand Flambeau, between 3,330 and 3,680 metres, with some lift pylons set directly into the glacier; Jean-Claude Killy and Alberto Tomba trained here. The area closed in the 1990s.

The Panoramic Mont-Blanc cable car crosses the glacier between the Gros Rognon and Pointe Helbronner, and the Vallée Blanche ski route passes over the ice between the col du Gros Rognon and the glacier de Leschaux. The Mont Blanc tunnel runs about 2,000 metres beneath the surface below the col du Gros Rognon and the aiguille de Toule. Since September 2015 a barrier has controlled access to the glacier from the Pointe Helbronner cable-car station.

A major international transport tunnel runs roughly 2,000 meters beneath the ice surface, connecting France directly to Italy through the mountain. This hidden infrastructure demonstrates how human engineering and nature coexist without altering the visible landscape.