Tour Ronde

The Tour Ronde (3,792 metres (12,441 ft)) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps, situated on the border between France and Italy. It is a prominent mountain, some 3.5 km north-east of Mont Blanc, but is effectively part of a continuation of the south eastern spur of Mont Maudit (l'Arete de la Brenva) which forms a frontier ridge between the two countries. It is easily accessible to mountaineers and provides not only a very good viewpoint from its summit of the Brenva face and the major peaks on the southern side of Mont Blanc, but it also offers a popular introduction to alpine climbing of all grades, including a north face ascent.

The relatively isolated but easily accessible summit of the Tour Ronde has a reputation for providing mountaineers with one of the finest viewpoints within the Mont Blanc range, and offers an ideal place for observing the sun rising on Mont Blanc itself. To the north it offers extensive views over the wide and heavily crevassed Géant Glacier (French: Glacier du Géant) and the Vallée Blanche towards the Aiguille du Midi, whilst looking westwards it provides very extensive views towards Mont Maudit and the full sweep of the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc and the Peuterey Ridge.

Writing about the first ascensionist's impression of the view from the summit of the Tour Ronde, one author quoted Douglas Freshfield in volume 6 of The Alpine Journal (1874), thus:

He wrote of this at the time that no other view had left upon his mind "a recollection of such overpowering magnificence".

— Douglas Freshfield, quoted by T. Graham Brown in 1939

The Tour Ronde can be most easily reached within about 1.5 hours from the Torino Hut near Pointe Helbronner, where mountaineers spend the night before leaving, usually well before dawn, to ascend the summit early the next day. Alternate and longer routes can be made from the Refuge des Cosmiques at the Col du Midi via a passage across the head of the Vallee Blanche and the Géant Glacier (or from Chamonix via the Aiguille du Midi and the Vallée Blanche Aerial Tramway). Pointe Helbronner can also be reached from the Italian side on foot or via cablecar from Courmayeur. Other even longer start or finish points include the Requin Hut above Montenvers, reached by a long but impressive glacier trek.

The mountain provides many routes of ascent, and of varying difficulty and danger, as well as opportunities for possible new routes of mixed climbing. Classic mountaineering routes on the Tour Ronde include:

Other new mixed climbing ascents routes have also been achieved in recent years although, because of the mountain's popularity and accessibility, it can be difficult to determine whether the routes are actually new or not.