Based on the principle of virtual work, an updated Lagrangian finite element formulation for the geometrical large deformation analysis of galloping of the iced conductor in an overhead transmission line is developed. In numerical simulation, a three-node isoparametric cable element with three translational and one torsional degrees-of-freedom at each node is used to discretize the transmission line. The nonlinear dynamic system equation is solved with the Newmark time integration method and the Newton-Raphson nonlinear iteration. Numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency of the presented method and the developed finite element program. A new possible galloping mode, which may reflect the saturation phenomenon of a nonlinear dynamic system, is discovered under the condition that the lowest order ofvertical natural frequency of the transmission line is approximately two times of the horizontal one.