Most hikers meet this mountain from the south on the Giant Ledge-Panther Mountain Trail, and the best scenery comes before the summit does. The overlooks on Giant Ledge look across to Slide and the Burroughs Range, then the trail drops into a col and climbs steeply to the ridge. The top itself is a lower-key affair: a small ledge with a good outlook northeast toward the Devil's Path, plus more gaps in the trees along the northern false summits. The south approach runs 3.2 miles one way with roughly 1,720 feet of net climbing.
The longer alternative, Panther Mountain and Giant Ledge from Fox Hollow, comes up from the north and covers 4.9 miles with about 2,450 feet of gain. Either way the trail is marked and well used. A March trip report found patches of ice in shaded areas and on the steep col, so microspikes are worth carrying. Panther is also one of the four peaks that must be climbed a second time in winter to finish the Catskill 3500 Club.
The woods change with altitude, from beech, birch and maple to boreal spruce and fir above 3,500 feet, and a small stand of virgin spruce near the summit escaped the 19th-century logging. Geologists have also floated a meteorite impact origin for the mountain, based on the rosette drainage pattern of the creeks that ring it.
