Serendipity Spire is located 88 km (55 mi) northwest of Golden in the Selkirk Mountains.

Precipitation runoff and glacial meltwater from the peak's slopes drains into tributaries of the Columbia River.

Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 1,457 metres (4,780 ft) above Austerity Creek in approximately 2 km (1.2 mi).

The peak was so named by American mountaineer William Lowell Putnam III "...because the mountain was inspiring to look at," which was a Putnam malapropism since serendipity is finding something valuable or agreeable, that hadn't been sought.

[5] The mountain's toponym was officially adopted on January 23, 1973, by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.