Nethermost Pike

High Crag and Nethermost Pike

Height: 891m (2,923ft)
Prominence: 29m (95ft)
Region: Eastern Fells
Classifications: Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett
Summit feature: Cairn
Times climbed: 2
Related trip reports:
Helvellyn via Striding Edge, Nethermost Pike & Dollywaggon Pike - 11/06/2016  

Helvellyn, Nethermost Pike & Dollywaggon Pike - 21/02/2015

A cairn marks the summit

What Wainwright said:

"Helvellyn is the great mountain that draws the crowds to Nethermost Pike: the latter is climbed incidentally, almost unknowingly. The fell is made of sterner stuff. From the east Nethermost Pike is magnificent, hardly less so than Helvellyn and seemingly more so because of its impressive surroundings".

Like most fells in the Helvellyn range, Nethermost Pike has grassy western slopes and rocky outcrops on the eastern side. Lead was once mined on its eastern slopes, resulting in open workings and underground mines.

The eastern slopes are protected as part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the Pike's geological and biological features, which include some of England's best arctic-alpine and tall-herb vegetation.

Between Ruthwaite and Nethermost Coves, Nethermost Pike sends out a fine rocky ridge. This arête, although not as imposing as Striding Edge across Nethermost Cove, ascends by a series of rocky steps for three-quarters of a mile, making straight for the summit. It is from this angle, rather than from the west, that the fell earns the sobriquet of "Pike", meaning peaked mountain.

Views down Grisdale are impressive, as is the seemingly vertical Striding Edge.

Return to Lake District – Eastern Fells