| Equinox Mountain | |
|---|---|
Little Equinox Mountain |
|
| Elevation | 3,850 feet (1,175 m) [1] |
| Prominence | 3,060 ft (935 m) [2] |
| Listing | New England Fifty Finest New England 100 Highest |
| Location | |
| Location | Bennington County, Vermont, USA |
| Range | Taconic Range |
| Topo map | USGS Manchester |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | road |
Equinox Mountain is a mountain in Bennington County, Vermont, United States, outside of Manchester. The mountain is the highest peak of the Taconic Range, and the highest point of Bennington County. It is one of thirteen peaks in Vermont with a topographic prominence over 2,000 ft, ranked third behind Mansfield and Killington. Equinox is the second highest peak in southern Vermont, after Stratton Mountain.
The Taconic Range ridgeline continues to the north from Equinox Mountain as Mother Myrick Mountain and south as Red Mountain; it is flanked to the west by Bennetts Ridge and Bear Mountain, also of the Taconic Range, and to the east by the western escarpment and plateau of the Green Mountains, across the Batten Kill valley. The southeast side of Equinox Mountain drains into Batten Kill, thence into the Hudson River, and into New York Harbor. The northwest side of Equinox drains into Green River, a tributary of Batten Kill.
Radio station WEQX's tower is located on the mountain, hence the callsign of the station. There is also a former hotel, the Sky Line Inn. A small, abandoned Cold War-era NORAD radar station can be seen near the summit. An abandoned, now collapsed tunnel boring dating to the mid 1960s, would have provided access to a subterranean cryonics receptacle for humans placed in low-temperature suspension. The tunnel project site is located on the northwest slope of the peak near the 2,800 ft. level. A private Vermont-based firm, Renew, Inc., had planned to preserve the bodies of several prominent high-IQ individuals for future reawakening. The project was hastily abandoned due to fraud allegations.
The Charterhouse of the Transfiguration monastery is situated on the slopes of the mountain. Equinox Mountain can be climbed by several different hiking trails.
Adjacent to the larger Equinox Mountains is Little Equinox, where two wind farms have previously operated. In 1981, one wind turbine was installed in 1981 and three more in 1982, making Little Equinox Mountain the site of one of the first wind farms in the United States. These turbines, an early-generation design by WTG Systems of Buffalo, NY, were mounted on 80-foot truss towers and had a nominal peak output of 350 kW. The turbines, however, were plagued with mechanical issues, and by the mid-1980s all four were out of service, standing idle on the mountain from 1985 through 1989.
Green Mountain Power began operating the site in 1988, erecting a wind measurement tower and removing the four old turbines. It installed two U.S. Windpower 100 kW turbines in 1990, which ran for fours years making electricity. Green Mountain Power removed its turbines and measurement tower in 1994. The company now owns the Searsburg Wind Farm in Searsburg, Vermont.
Endless Energy Corporation, a wind farm development company based in Maine, has expressed interest in the site for a modern wind farm. They have conducted wind measurements as well as environmental studies of Little Equinox Mountain. To build a wind farm in Vermont, the developer needs to go through the Public Service Board's Section 248 application process. [3]