It rises nearly 3,000 feet (914 meters) above its eastern footings in Manchester, giving Equinox the third-greatest topographic prominence among the state's mountains (after Mansfield and Killington).

Davidson had acquired about 7,000 acres mostly on Equinox's western slopes, with tentative plans to develop a commercial ski area centered on upper Hamilton Hollow.

[8][9] But as of his death in 1969, Davidson had completed transfer of all his Equinox property to an especially austere Catholic monastic order called the Carthusians, and paid for building their Charterhouse of the Transfiguration monastery (opened 1970) in the upper hollow at an elevation of 2,100 feet.

It was demolished in 2011 to make way for a "viewing center" operated by the monastery,[12] which obtained 2019 gross receipts of $327,502 from its toll road and related gift shop, according to a tax filing.

[13][7] Prospective developments on the eastern slopes of Equinox included a 1930s federal work agency's unsuccessful proposal to cut ski trails.

Development possibilities on a larger scale emerged with the 1962 sale  of Manchester's Equinox House hotel and its adjoining 1,500 acres of  mountainside, after which a succession of corporate owners repeatedly made ambitious proposals for a commercial ski area there.

"The Mount Equinox Annual Hillclimb" on the toll road began in 1950, when the winner was William F. Milliken Jr.[18][19] During the 1960s, a still-standing course record was set at "just over four minutes" and participants have exceeded 100 miles per hour on stretches of the course.

These turbines, an early-generation design by WTG Systems of Buffalo, New York, were mounted on 80-foot (24 m) truss towers and had a nominal peak output of 350 kW.