Pike of Blisco
Pike of Blisco at 705m (2,313ft) is a shapely, rocky little summit above the head of Great Langdale, beloved by Wainwright for its excellent views and its distinctive, pointed profile when seen from the valley.
Is it worth going? — Today’s conditions & 7-day summit forecast
Modelled guidance for the 703 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 703 m summit altitude via Open-Meteo. Summit conditions are always harsher than the valley — check the professional mountain forecasts before you go.
Pike of Blisco at a glance
Pike of Blisco
Routes up Pike of Blisco
Hand-mapped, with GPX to download — full maps further down.
Classifications & hill data
The short answers
Is Pike of Blisco a Wainwright?
Pike of Blisco is a Wainwright. It is also on the Birkett list, the Synge list, the Nuttall list, the Fellranger list and the Marilyn list.
Where do you park for Pike of Blisco?
The nearest car park we hold is Blake Rigg Little Langdale (verge, west), about 1.5 km from the summit in a straight line. The next is Wrynose Fell (layby), 1.6 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 Pike of Blisco
Best parking to hike Pike of Blisco
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 Pike of Blisco 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 Pike of Blisco
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 Pike of Blisco in cloud
StraightforwardA rough, rocky summit ringed by crags, with no single obvious way off in poor visibility. 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 Pike of Blisco 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: Blake Rigg Little Langdale (verge, west), about 1.5 km from the summit (straight line). Full parking, toilets and bus details are below.
Birketts near Pike of Blisco (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 Pike of Blisco
✎️ 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 Pike of Blisco
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 Pike of Blisco
The 360° skyline from Pike of Blisco
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 Pike of Blisco, by direction
- North: High Raise (5 km), Glaramara (7 km), Little Dodd (18 km), Skiddaw Lesser Man (23 km), Skiddaw Little Man (24 km), Skiddaw South Top (24 km), Skiddaw Middle Top (25 km), Skiddaw (25 km), Skiddaw North Top (25 km)
- North-east: Fairfield (12 km), Dollywaggon Pike (12 km), High Crag (12 km), Hart Crag (12 km), Dove Crag (12 km), Nethermost Pike (12 km), Helvellyn (13 km), Helvellyn Lower Man (13 km), St Sunday Crag (13 km), Raise (15 km), Stybarrow Dodd (16 km), Watson's Dodd (17 km), Great Dodd (18 km), Rampsgill Head (19 km), Kidsty Pike (20 km), High Raise (20 km)
- East: Red Screes (13 km), Stony Cove Pike (16 km), High Street (18 km), Harter Fell (20 km)
- South-east: Wetherlam (4 km)
- South: Swirl How (4 km), Grey Friar (4 km)
- North-west: Allen Crags (6 km), Ill Crag (6 km), Broad Crag (6 km), Scafell Pike (6 km), Looking Steads (6 km), Wandope (18 km), Crag Hill (18 km), Grasmoor (19 km)
On the clearest days the far horizon adds: Snowdon (164 km, Wales), Carnedd Llewelyn (152 km, Wales), Moel Siabod (160 km, Wales), Tinto (134 km, Scotland), Yr Eifl (183 km, Wales), Craig Cwm Silyn (171 km, Wales), Pendle Hill (82 km, England), Gyrn Ddu (180 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 Pike of Blisco
Pike of Blisco 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 | 04:42 BST ±5.0 min | 04:38 | +4 min |
| Equinox | 06:13 GMT ±5.0 min | 06:16 | -3 min |
| Midwinter | 08:27 GMT ±5.0 min | 08:32 | -5 min |
A low, open northern horizon — the ground falls away northwards (mean 0.3°).
Last light — when the sun leaves Pike of Blisco
Pike of Blisco loses the sun early. Its earliest evening of the modelled year falls at midsummer, when last light is 27 minutes before almanac sunset — 21:25 against 21:52. The sun goes down to the north-west from here (309.4°), and the skyline on that bearing stands at 2.81°.
| Last light | Almanac sunset | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midsummer | 21:25 BST ±5.0 min | 21:52 | -27 min |
| Equinox | 18:13 GMT ±5.0 min | 18:26 | -13 min |
| Midwinter | 15:55 GMT ±5.0 min | 15:50 | +5 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 Pike of Blisco. 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 Pike of Blisco
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
All 82 Wainwrights in clear view (nearest first)
Cold Pike, Crinkle Crags - Long Top (Second Crinkle), Loft Crag, Pike of Stickle, Lingmoor Fell (Brown How), Great Carrs, Harrison Stickle, Bowfell, Wetherlam, Swirl How, Thunacar Knott, Pavey Ark, Grey Friar, Rossett Pike, Blea Rigg, High Raise (High White Stones), Allen Crags, Holme Fell, Silver How, Tarn Crag (Easedale), Dow Crag, Glaramara, Harter Fell (Eskdale), Black Fell, Helm Crag, Loughrigg Fell, Rosthwaite Fell - Bessyboot, Steel Fell (Dead Pike - Steel Fell), Nab Scar, Stone Arthur, Heron Pike (Rydal), Grey Knotts, Seat Sandal, Great Rigg, Great Crag (Stonethwaite), Low Pike, High Pike (Scandale), Fairfield, Dollywaggon Pike, Hart Crag, Dove Crag, Grange Fell (Brund Fell), Nethermost Pike, Helvellyn, Baystones (Wansfell), Red Screes, St Sunday Crag, Middle Dodd, Robinson, Raise, Troutbeck Tongue, Sour Howes, Stony Cove Pike (Caudale Moor), Stybarrow Dodd, Sallows, Watson's Dodd, Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Gray Crag, Wandope, Great Dodd, Crag Hill (Eel Crag), High Street, Mardale Ill Bell, The Knott (High Street), Grasmoor, Rampsgill Head, Kidsty Pike, Harter Fell (Mardale), Kentmere Pike, High Raise (High Street), Shipman Knotts, Lonscale Fell, Dodd (Skiddaw), Skiddaw Little Man, Carl Side, Long Side, Ullock Pike, Skiddaw, Knott, Binsey
How Pike of Blisco’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 Pike of Blisco
Is Pike o’ Blisco a hard walk?
Rocky and steep near the top, with a little easy hands-on work on some lines, but nothing sustained — it is a compact, characterful fell rather than a difficult one.
One caveat about our figures rather than the fell: the only route we have mapped over it is the Langdale Horseshoe, 20.2 km with 1497 m of ascent, which we rate Severe. That is a full day over many tops and is not how most people climb Pike o’ Blisco — the usual approach is a much shorter round from the Langdale valley, which we have not walked and measured 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 Pike of Blisco
- Allen Crags
- Black Fell
- Bowfell
- Brim Fell
- Cold Pike
- 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)
- 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)