Cold Pike
Cold Pike at 701m (2,300ft) is a rocky little summit on the ridge between Pike of Blisco and Crinkle Crags, its three small tops each providing slightly different views.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 700 m summit. Always check the Met Office mountain forecast and MWIS before you set off.
On the summit today (Sat 12 Sep): 13° to 7°C, gusts to 49 mph, 56.4 mm of rain forecast.
Forecast snapshot from 12 Sep 2026, 15:36 UTC — refreshed nightly and updated live in your browser. Temperatures and gusts adjusted to the 700 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Cold Pike at a glance
Cold Pike
Routes up Cold Pike
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Cold Pike a Wainwright?
Cold Pike is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list and the Fellranger list.
Where do you park for Cold Pike?
The nearest car park we hold is Hell Gill Pike (verge), about 1.3 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Hell Gill Pike (verge, south), 1.7 km out. We only look within 2.5 km, measured straight-line: over longer distances a road may cross a pass and the drive bears no relation to the line.
Parking & buses for Cold Pike
Best parking to hike Cold Pike
Where we have the data, each parking spot also shows the nearest public toilets and facilities (cafés, pubs, shops).
Positions are approximate — zoom the map to confirm. Lakeland car parks fill before 9am on fine weekends.
Tip: pan and zoom the interactive map at the top of this page to spot other potential parking near your route.
Vehicles are left entirely at their owner’s risk. We list places people park; we cannot vouch for any of them. Judge it on the day: take valuables with you, leave nothing on show, and if a spot feels wrong when you get there, park somewhere else.
Getting to Cold Pike by bus
The 516 stops at New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel (opp), 290 m from the start of Langdale Horseshoe — a route we rate Severe. Last bus: Monday to Friday 20:03 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516); Saturday 22:23 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516); Sunday 20:03 towards Dungeon Ghyll (516). Checked against the operator’s timetable, 7 September 2026. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before relying on a last bus.
Hazards on Cold Pike
No hazard card for this fell. The usual open-fell rules apply: check the forecast, carry a map and compass, and turn back in cloud if the ground is not what you expected.
Navigating Cold Pike in cloud
StraightforwardA broad, gently-sloping top with little to steer by — easy to lose your bearings and hard to relocate in mist. Navigation here is relatively straightforward even in cloud — but carry map and compass and know how to use them; a low score never means “safe”.
In winter — snow, whiteout, cornices, buried features — every top demands full winter navigation skills whatever its band, and a broad, gentle summit can be the worst place of all. See walking in bad weather and the navigation guide.
How Cold Pike compares with all 214 — the Clag Index: navigating in cloud. A relative, deliberately cautious guide; the site can’t navigate for you.
Map & nearby Birketts
Skip mapFree mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap (switch layers top-right). Parking positions are approximate.
Nearest parking: Hell Gill Pike (verge), about 1.3 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Cold Pike (within 3 km)
These Birkett tops are not Wainwright summits — detour to them on this walk and they are pure profit. Distances are straight-line; allow extra for terrain.
Routes over Cold Pike
✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
✎️ Planned route — drawn but not personally walked or checked yet.
A planned line is a suggestion, not a guarantee — conditions change. Navigate independently and carry a map & compass. How to use this guide.
On the hill: terrain and water on Cold Pike
Water & shelter on the way up
On the Langdale Horseshoe route:
💧 Treat water from the fell before you drink it. A mapped point is usually a tap or public supply, but never drink untreated from a beck, stream or tarn — even clear-looking hill water can carry giardia or cryptosporidium from livestock or a carcass upstream and leave you seriously ill. Run it through a filter or purifier (a LifeStraw, Sawyer Squeeze or HydraPak) or bring it to a rolling boil first.
On-route facilities © OpenStreetMap contributors, per route — an absent marker doesn’t mean none.
The view from Cold Pike
The 360° skyline from Cold Pike
A computed 360° skyline — every visible named top labelled by distance and bearing, from the terrain model in perfect clarity, not photographed. Drag to pan; reveal the far four-nations horizon.
What you can see from Cold Pike, by direction
- North: High Raise (6 km), Looking Steads (7 km), Glaramara (7 km), Sail (18 km), Grisedale Pike (20 km), Knowe Crags (24 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (24 km), Skiddaw Little Man (24 km), Gategill Fell Top (24 km), Blencathra (25 km), Skiddaw South Top (25 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (25 km), Skiddaw (26 km), Skiddaw North Top (26 km)
- North-east: Fairfield (13 km), Dollywaggon Pike (13 km), High Crag (13 km), Hart Crag (13 km), Dove Crag (13 km), Nethermost Pike (13 km), Helvellyn (14 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (14 km), St Sunday Crag (14 km), Raise (16 km), Stybarrow Dodd (17 km), Watson's Dodd (18 km), Great Dodd (19 km), High Street (19 km), Rampsgill Head (20 km), Kidsty Pike (20 km), High Raise (21 km)
- East: Red Screes (14 km), Stony Cove Pike (17 km), Mardale Ill Bell (20 km), Harter Fell (20 km)
- South-east: Wetherlam (4 km)
- South: Great Carrs (3 km), Grey Friar (3 km), Brim Fell (5 km)
- North-west: Crag Hill (18 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (163 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (151 km, Wales), Aran Fawddwy (186 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (159 km, Wales), Arenig Fawr (172 km, Wales), Yr Eifl (182 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (170 km, Wales), Gyrn Ddu (179 km, Wales).
Computed from terrain in perfect clarity, not photographed · distances are straight-line.
Computed from Copernicus GLO-30 terrain; distant tops from the Database of British and Irish Hills (opens in new tab) (CC BY 4.0). See how we compute the view · and the summit intervisibility report below.
Sunrise and sunset on Cold Pike
Cold Pike sits close to the flat-horizon case. Even on its longest wait of the modelled year (on 1 June) first light is only 8 minutes after almanac sunrise, so the published sunrise time is a fair guide here.
| First light | Almanac sunrise | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 04:38 BST ±5.0 min | 04:38 | — |
| Equinox | 06:13 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:16 | -3 min |
| Midwinter | 08:31 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:33 | -2 min |
The northern horizon stands at about 0.78° from here.
Last light — when the sun leaves Cold Pike
Cold Pike loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when last light is 42 minutes before almanac sunset — 21:10 against 21:52. The sun goes down to the north-west from here (306.4°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 4.3°.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:10 BST ±5.0 min | 21:52 | -42 min |
| Equinox | 18:21 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:26 | -5 min |
| Midwinter | 15:57 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:50 | +7 min |
Computed, not photographed. First light is the first minute the sun’s upper limb clears this summit’s own skyline and last light the last minute it is still clear of it, both solved against the 360° horizon profile behind The View from Cold Pike. Almanac sunrise and sunset are the flat-horizon convention. Every time carries a ± band from the 30 m elevation model — it smooths arêtes and cornices, so nothing here claims better than five minutes. These are daylight figures, not a descent plan: the light goes on fading for a good while after the sun leaves, and going down in it is a decision about your own ground and party, not about this table.
What you can see from Cold Pike
On a clear day — computed sightlines, curvature- and refraction-corrected.On the clearest days the view reaches across to Wales.
- Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Wales
- Carnedd Llewelyn Wales
- Ingleborough Yorkshire Dales
- Whernside Yorkshire Dales
- Irish Sea open water
All 81 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Pike of Blisco, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Great Carrs, Swirl How, Grey Friar, Bowfell, Wetherlam, Loft Crag, Pike of Stickle, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Harrison Stickle, Rossett Pike, Thunacar Knott, Brim Fell, Blea Rigg, Dow Crag, Sergeant Man, Harter Fell (Eskdale), High Raise (High White Stones), Glaramara, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Sergeant's Crag, Black Fell, Loughrigg Fell, Steel Fell (Dead Pike - Steel Fell), Nab Scar, Heron Pike (Rydal), Great Crag (Stonethwaite), Seat Sandal, Great Rigg, Low Pike, High Pike (Scandale), Dale Head, Fairfield, Dollywaggon Pike, Grange Fell (Brund Fell), Hart Crag, Dove Crag, Nethermost Pike, Hindscarth, Helvellyn, Baystones (Wansfell), Red Screes, St Sunday Crag, High Seat, Middle Dodd, Raise, Bleaberry Fell, Troutbeck Tongue, Sour Howes, Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor), Stybarrow Dodd, Sallows, Watson's Dodd, Ill Bell, Yoke, Sail, Froswick, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), Gray Crag, Great Dodd, High Street, Mardale Ill Bell, The Knott (High Street), Rampsgill Head, Kidsty Pike, Harter Fell (Mardale), Kentmere Pike, High Raise (High Street), Shipman Knotts, Latrigg, Lonscale Fell, Dodd (Skiddaw), Skiddaw Little Man, Carl Side, Blencathra - Hallsfell Top, Long Side, Ullock Pike, Skiddaw, Knott, High Pike (Caldbeck)
How Cold Pike’s view compares with all 214 — the View Report: every Wainwright ranked by what you can see from the top.
Sightlines from a bare-earth terrain model (forests and buildings not included), corrected for the Earth’s curvature and average atmospheric refraction. “Distant” sightlines and any over 100 km depend on exceptionally clear air. Modelled from Copernicus GLO-30 open elevation data — a guide to the view, not a guarantee of any single one.
Places to stay near this fell
From Great Langdale: 3 places in Grasmere
Frequently asked questions about Cold Pike
Is Cold Pike a hard walk?
Short and rocky rather than hard. Cold Pike has three small tops and a bit of easy hands-on work if you go looking for it, but the ordinary line over it asks nothing technical.
Our routes over it are the long way round, and that is what the numbers show: 13.6 km with 1033 m of ascent over Stonesty Pike and Great Knott, with navigation graded hard. From Wrynose Bottom it is a much shorter proposition than that suggests — we simply have not mapped that line yet.
Questions drawn from real Google “People also ask” searches; answers written and fact-checked by us. · Reviewed 2026-08-30 · Suggest a question or correction (opens in new tab)
Other fells near Cold Pike
- Allen Crags
- Black Fell
- Bowfell
- Brim Fell
- Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle)
- Dow Crag
- Esk Pike
- Glaramara
- Great Carrs
- Great End
- Green Crag
- Grey Friar
- Hard Knott
- Harter Fell (Eskdale)
- Holme Fell
- Illgill Head
- Lingmell
- Lingmoor Fell (Brown How)
- Pike of Blisco
- Rossett Pike
- Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot
- Scafell
- Scafell Pike
- Seathwaite Fell (Wainwright summit)
- Slight Side
- Swirl How
- The Old Man of Coniston (Coniston Old Man)
- Wetherlam
- Whin Rigg (Wasdale)