Monastery on Equinox

[Pamola]

No, this doesn't have to do with hiking, skiing, climbing, or pub crawling, but it is interesting nonetheless and deserves a look.
It is on equinox, involves the simple life, and gives light to the lack of trails on the western side of the peak.

Evidently (I didn't know this but others may have), there is a Carthusian Monastery on the west side of Equinox called "The Charterhouse of the Transfiguration" and the only one of its type in North America. At first I thought this would be something old, dilapidated, and/or reclaimed by lay-society as some sort of inn or something. No! These are intensely observant fathers and brothers who have no contact with the outside world other than immediate family. The property is 11 square miles with the monastery itself on a pond easily visible from google earth/maps.

Check it out for yourself! I'm not religious but I found this incredibly interesting anyways. These aint no trappists, so don't bushwhack down and start asking for Chimay and jam. mmmm. Chimay and jam.
Anyone know any more about them? How they indirectly interact with the community, if at all?

Wikipedia entry
homepage with pics and pdf explaining the place

 

[AMF]

Don't know how they interact w/ the community, but i believe they own the whole mountain - its a moneymaker for them.

 

[Maddy]

What a beautiful place!

 

[Papa Bear]

Don't know how they interact w/ the community, but i believe they own the whole mountain - its a moneymaker for them.

I think they do not own the whole mountain. See this site Equinox Preservation Trust.

The Trust's web site says the land is owned by the resort and that they (the Trust) manage a conservation easment (given to TNC and VLT) on the land. If you look at the map on the site, the Trust land is most of the SE side of the mountain. Presumably the resort owns the top, the road etc. and that part is not under the easement.

See also:

If your eyes are good you'll see the sign says the Trust works with a bunch of other groups: TNC, VINS, VLT, Bennigton College and Burr & Burton Seminary. They don't mention the good fathers so I assume they stay on their side of the mountain.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Anyone know any more about them? How they indirectly interact with the community, if at all?

Wikipedia entry
homepage with pics and pdf explaining the place

I do know they've been there for many years, and they are quite private. I've never seen anything in a Vermont newpaper in 50 years other than mention their existence.

 

[MichaelJ]

There's some interesting history here as well.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

There's some interesting history here as well.

Before they cannonize him I'd like to know his role in the development of mustard gas ...

 

[jjmcgo]

What a life

Some people sure live interesting lives. He was involved in the development of the most destructive weapons used in WWI and WWII, mustard gas and the atomic bomb.
Then he headed Union Carbide. I checked to see what responsibility he might have had for the 1984 Bhopal disaster but that plant wasn't built until 1969, after he retired.
So he's off the hook for that. But he was in charge for toxic dioxin releases in Nitro, WV, in 1949. Nitro was Union Carbide's hometown. There was another in Amsterdam in 1963.
That was dioxin released in Bhopal and local folks told me dioxin polluted Penobscot Bay in the area near Stockton Springs (and maybe much more) and that's why there's little to no fish there.
Dioxin is/was used to bleach paper.