Pharaoh Mountain Climbing

Park at the South Pharaoh Lake parking lot at the end of Pharaoh Rd. Walk 1.1 miles along the Pharaoh Lake Trail to a bridge over Mill Brook. I've heard that it's possible to drive to this point and park just before Mill Brook, but you would need some serious vehicular swag to pull that off (at least in the winter). Once past Mill Brook, walk until you reach the southern end of Pharaoh Lake. Cross Pharaoh Lake Brook where it flows out of the lake. Up until this point, the trail is wide, flat, and probably packed down by hordes of snowshoers, xc skiers, families out bare-booting their way down the ski tracks, etc. After crossing the southern end of Pharaoh Lake, go straight onto the Sucker Brook Trail (Heading towards Desolate Brook). Sucker Brook Trail is a horse trail, and it will probably not be broken out. Follow this trail until either A) you find a stream crossing with a bunch of large boulders on the right, or B) you decide you've gone far enough and everything sucks and anyways you can tell by your map that you are already further west than the cliff band on Pharaoh Mt. At this point, turn off the horse trail and bushwhack northeast until you can see the cliff. Then walk towards the obvious tall flow of ice, navigating a small talus field to reach the base of the cliff. This should all take about 3 hours if conditions are good and/or you're in a rush like I was because you got to the parking lot at 10:30 AM instead of 8:00 like you had planned.

Maps and approach beta in the Lawyer & Haas Adirondack Rock guidebook are helpful.

Use snowshoes if you're of sound mind. Use skis if you want a pleasant experience for the first 3.6 miles and don't mind bushwhacking uphill in steep snow through trees and talus with long miserysticks (TM) attached to your feet for the last mile or so.