 As already mentioned, the Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc used to form a single glacial system.During the Small Ice Age the combined ice mass reached its maximum extent in 1815 and ended roughly at the height of the present-day Cézanne Hut ().About a kilometre further down the valley is the old terminal moraine of "Fontfroide", relic of an advance of the Glacier Noir and Glacier Blanc from the time before the 16th century.