The Tödi is a vast mountain massif projecting as a promontory to the north from the range that divides the basin of the Linth from that of the Rhine.

The Glarner Tödi (3,571 metres (11,716 ft)), long supposed to be the highest, and most conspicuous from Stachelberg and other points of view to the north, is actually the second in height.

This originates in a vast snow-basin south-east of the Tödi, bounded to the south by the peaks of Stoc Grond, Piz Urlaun and Bifertenstock, forming the boundary of the two cantons.

On the opposite side a ridge of rocks called Bifertengrätli, descending north-east from the Tödi, forms the boundary of the Biferten Glacier.

On the south side, the massif of the Tödi is mainly composed of gneiss, which, according to Escher von der Linth, overlies a pioritic granite with large felspar crystals.

There are manifest traces of anthracite, especially at the Bifertengrätli, where the rock in some places assumes the appearance of a quartzite mixed with fragment of talc, which has elsewhere in this region been referred to the Verrucano.

It was not until 1824 that the peak was climbed, when Placidus a Spescha, accompanied by a servant and two chamois-hunters, made his sixth and final assault from the south side.