"My vehicle's thermometer read -20F during my drive to Tupper Lake and was around -15F when I began my hike up Mount Arab. Thankfully, winds were light on this morning. I wasn't cold at all. The trail was really packed down good, so I only needed to use my snowshoes between the firetower and the actual summit roughly 1,000 feet east of there. Views from the tower were spectacular in all directions, even on a cloudy day like this one! As I did on my winter ascent of Bald Mountain a few years ago, I ran stretches of the trail to get more of a workout. I'm finally starting to get myself back into halfway respectable shape after putting on over 25 pounds during the pandemic. Not walking/jogging/stair-running during the workweek hurt, but now I have a "mini stepper" exercise machine that I use on weekday evenings. That is already starting to pay dividends. This was the first of five hikes that I did on this day, with the others being Goodman Mountain, Coney Mountain, Cathedral Rock, and part of the NPT that included some off-trail wandering in my snowshoes. The following day, I did some more hiking/exploring in Chimney Bluffs and Sterling Nature Center on Lake Ontario. All in all, a ..." — theascent • Mar 4, 2022

"We walked with snow shoes on the way up, and microspikes on the way down. Could have been microspikes the whole way! Plenty of pictures of ice on large rocks, great clear view at the top with minimal wind." — mikebenjamin • Feb 26, 2022

"Nancy’s winter Fire Tower Challenge finish! Did with Stephanie and Sonja. A really sunny day with 7 degree temperatures. Awesome views! Easy up and down with snowshoes and spikes." — lfrancois • Jan 8, 2022

"Planned on doing a traverse over Pitchoff (W to E) but realized halfway through that I left my keys in my friend's car. So, we looped back after hitting the summit, stopped at Balanced Boulders on the ascent, which provided great views and was a wide-open rock face, It was a bit windy on some climbs and the summits. We needed spikes for a part of it, but overall great sunny weather and not too difficult of a hike, a few technical scrambles. After getting back to the car, we decided to continue to Cascade Mountain. Muddy for the first half, icy on the second half so spikes were needed. Summit was beautiful as always, but extremely windy. Overall, 9-10 miles in 6 hours between the two peaks. " — gregoryskiba • Dec 17, 2021

"Did the loop. Beautifuly strange day. Bumps pond was lovely. Clouds were rolling in and out at the lookout. Sun was shining. At the bottom the first snowflakes of the season were falling. Should have done Erabus but didn’t. Muddy at the pond.My sisters and I Tanya on top and have done several hikes with her since." — melaniehaskell • Nov 4, 2021