Signal du Petit Mont-Cenis, Mountain summit in Savoie, France

Signal du Petit Mont-Cenis, also called Punta Clairy, is a 3,162 m summit of the Cottian Alps entirely in French territory, in Savoie. It rises between the Mont Cenis pass and the Col du Petit Mont-Cenis, above the west shore of the Mont Cenis lake, on the water divide between the Arc and Dora Riparia watersheds. Its summit rests on the Ambin crystalline basement, capped by lustrous schists, with quartzite and gypsum outcrops on the south-east flank toward the Pointe de Bellecombe and serpentinite on the north flank.

The territory became part of France following the 1947 Treaty of Paris, which redrew boundaries between France and Italy after World War II. This boundary settlement reflected the political changes that shaped the Alpine region in the postwar period.

The mountain's name comes from the signal, a lookout point, above the Mont Cenis pass; in Italian it is Punta Clairy. In April 1945 French chasseurs alpins, mountain infantry rather than hunters, fought German mountain troops here in extreme conditions, and these clashes became a symbol of the liberation of the Alps, this part of the Maurienne being among the last French territory freed.

The hike to the summit takes about three hours from the refuge and follows marked paths across alpine terrain. Visitors should be prepared for mountainous conditions and changeable weather at this elevation.

The summit sits on the water divide between the Dora Riparia, draining to the Po, and the Arc, draining to the Rhone. Since 1862 it marked the Franco-Italian border, until the 1947 Treaty of Paris moved the line and made the whole peak French.