Whiteside has three summits: the Wainwright top stands at the Crummock Water end of the ridge and has a height of 707 metres (2,320 feet). Wainwright accepted that it was not the highest point, but chose it as the summit in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells. This western top does have sufficient prominence to be classified as a Nuttall. Wainwright described the true summit as the Whitesite East top, this being 400 metres further along the ridge to Hopegill Head and substantially higher at 719 metres (2,359 feet). The Nuttalls describe the true summit as Whiteside East Top and the lower Wainwright summit as Whiteside.