"This hike with Meenu for my peaks 21 and 22 and her 44 and 45 turned into the longest and most challenging one so far. We started at 4 am and it was cold and there were a few snowflakes here and there. The first few miles to through Marcy Dam toward Lake Arnold went well, but we were really ready for it to get light. It was wet and muddy everywhere and the logs/boards to cross were very slick. We had to negotiate the famous floating log area and it was not passable, so we had to navigate around which was still extremely wet and difficult. Meenu submerged her already wet foot (boots were leaking) and we were really concerned about her for the rest of the hike. The conditions really slowed us down. We got to the junction for Gray and started up, knowing we were taking a long time. This was a tough ascent with barely marked trails and some boulders and steep spots. I slipped down one big rock face that we should not have gone down that approach - it would have been fine in summer but there was ice and navigating a crack in the boulder did not work out. Fortunately my slide ended up in a muddy but ok landing, but it was very scary. Shortly after we ran into a couple of women we had see..." — kvander • Oct 25, 2020

"Hike with Gray (first) and Marcy (last) on a beautiful, sunny day - had all the summits to myself and only saw hikers passing other direction on the trail and a few far behind me heading to other peaks or the peaks in different orders. 20mi round trip taking the avalanche lake (scenic) route." — ionahraqs • Sep 5, 2020

"Kristin's hike for her final 2 summits with Dave and Paula. A beautiful day with lots of people with MASKS on the trails. 18+ miles in 13 hours! Left the house at 3AM. The ADK Loj parking lot was filling up fast! Not many dogs on the trail. Kristin posed for a flag picture!!" — lfrancois • Jul 18, 2020

"Three knuckleheads tried to do a loop of Gray, Skylight and Marcy in a high water situation do to recent rains and snow melt. Almost every trail was a stream including the Skylight spur. Tedious day of boulder hopping with wet feet practically the whole day. Fortunately we got splendid views from both Marcy and Skylight which was great for the two knuckleheads who did these for the first time. Left Loj PA at 7am and returned close to 7:30 pm. We bailed on Gray, our first peak, as it was it was already afternoon and we still had the other two peaks to do and we had to do Marcy in order to get back to our car." — Nimblefoot • Oct 23, 2019

"Tom, Black and I left the Upper Works lot at 6 am @ 48 degrees. We were headed for Redfield and Cliff but missed the cut off so we hiked on to Gray Peak and then Skylight. Summited Skylight at 1:30. Spectacular 360 degree view on summit. Left summit to begin our 10.4 mile return hike. Returned to car at 5:55 pm. 12 hour day and 22.4 miles. Long day!!" — garyogden • Aug 25, 2019

"We took advantage again of a 3 day weekend to do Gray, Skylight, Cliff & Redfield.We arrived on Friday at the Upper works trail-head and started around 1h00pm. We set out to camp at the Up Hill Lean to. It took us about 5 and a half to get there. The weather was hot and it slowed us down during mid point. Still we felt good about the hike. We intend as always to camp in our tent. luckily, there were not many people (benefits of arriving on a Friday afternoon).We were glad that the camp site was next to the uphill brook. We had fresh water to filter.We started our hike on Saturday morning around 8h00am.  First we headed for Gray mountain. Our pace was good. There were some good climbing near the summit. The last main one appear quite difficult and a little bit dangerous. Fortunately, someone that was already at the top of the section, told us of a passage on the right.So at 10h30 we were at the top of Gray. We took a 30 minutes break to take some pictures and snack. Next stop: Skylight. The hike getting there was absolutely amazing. We kept stopping to gaze at the view and taking pictures. It took us 2 hours to get at the top of Skylight.After staying a little. We started to descend..." — CPaquin • Aug 2, 2019

"What an EPIC Day! With three w46er Mountain summits climbed, Grey Peak, Skylight and Mount Marcy highest point of New York State. 18 miles covered with Matt Topgun Peacock. Snowshoes most of the way, good pack trails, Started around 7:30 am till 8:30pm, out in the dark and totally exhusted but we did it! It was steak for dinner tonight! Enjoy" — ramjet1963 • Mar 9, 2019

"What was a questionable start to the day quickly turned into the perfect day to climb some high peaks. Summitted Marcy and Skylight before spending the night down at Lake Colden." — Right-On • Jun 15, 2018

"#45, with Caet Cash. The beginning of this day can be found on my Gray Peak log. After summiting Gray Peak, we headed down rapid fast out to the trail to the 4 corners. The trail conditions were still great, all hard packed, only spikes required. The 4 corners sign was pretty close to being underneath the snow. We made a relatively slow ascent of Skylight as the snow was a bit snotty and boy this sucker was steep! When we topped out, we were reminded of the sub zero temperatures as the wind was really blowing, and we took in the amazing scenery around us while looking for a good wind block (which we found). We relaxed for a few minutes and enjoyed the incredible views, we had such great visibility. We hit the summit at right around 15:00, so it took an hour and 15 minutes to get from Gray Peak to the summit of Skylight. We took a bunch of photos and headed back down around 15:30. It grew dark right around the time we were closing in on Flowed Lands, and Caet and I were really hustling despite my sore legs. We got back to the car at exactly 20:30. Due to the re-route on Gray, we wound up with 22 total miles, in 13.5 hours including an hour of summit stop time. Pretty proud of that. ..." — kellieirene • Mar 5, 2017

"Unbelievable hike, my third time was a charm! This was my wifes 1st time, we went up the Phelps trail, a moderate hike all the way. It was cool and partly cloudy skies but the clouds were high and the views were plenty. When we summited Marcy we figured we were feeling good so we decided to do Skylight and Gray. Skylight was another Gem and really not much effort coming from 4 Corners. Gray was actually the toughest of the three because it was steeper and more rugged terrain plus we were already 10 miles and two mountains in. But all three were worth every step, we then went out via the direction of the Felspar Lean-to and then to Marcy Dam and the ADK Loj. Actually that part of the trip was tough on the feet and legs. Glad we went up the Phelps trail, much nicer." — hbotc • Jul 30, 2016