Гора Аскутни в Вермонте

Mountain in Vermont, U. S.

Mount Ascutney is a mountain in the U. S. state of Vermont. At , it is the highest peak in Windsor County. Mount Ascutney is a monadnock that rises abruptly from the surrounding lowlands. For example, the Windsor Trail is to the summit with of elevation gain and an overall 18% grade. Particularly noteworthy are the mountain's granite outcrops, one of which, near the summit, serves as a launching point for hang gliders. The mountain's base straddles several villages — Ascutney, Brownsville, Windsor, and West Windsor — and it is located only several miles off exit 8 on Interstate 91 in Mount Ascutney State Park. The mountain itself is visible from the top of Mount Washington, seventy miles away.

Mt. Ascutney is located in the southeastern section of Windsor County, in the Connecticut River Valley. The village of Ascutney, in the town of Weathersfield, is to the south. To the north lie the towns of Windsor and West Windsor. The village of Brownsville, in the town of West Windsor, sits at the northwestern base of the mountain. To the east lie the Connecticut River and the city of Claremont, New Hampshire. To the immediate west stands another, smaller mountain, fittingly named Little Ascutney Mountain.

Since the Colonial era, the mountain has primarily been referred to as "Mount Ascutney" (or such variant spellings as "Aschutney"), a name made official by the U. S. Board on Geologic Names in 1960. While various folk etymologies exist, many modern sources trace the name "Ascutney" to the Abenaki word Ascutegnik, a word meaning "at the end of the river fork," which was the name of a settlement near where the Sugar River meets the Connecticut River. However, the use of the Abenaki word Kaskadenak (pronounced: Cas Cad Nac)–which means "mountain of the rocky summit" or "wide mountain"–as a name of the mountain has long been attested, and the Board on Geologic Names acknowledges the name as an official variant.</blockquote>

Vermont Route 131 follows the south face of the mountain, and provides some good views of Ascutney. Similarly, Vermont Routes 44 and 44 A follow the north face, and provide a number of views of that side of the mountain. The north south route of Interstate 91 runs just east of the mountain and provides extensive views of both the north and south faces. New Hampshire Routes 12 and 12 A provide good views of the east face. Viewing of the west face is difficult, due to the presence, immediately to the west, of Little Ascutney Mountain. At longer distance, the mountain is visible from many locations quite a few miles away, particularly hilltops and other mountains. Ascutney can be viewed from select locations on the Dartmouth College campus, among them the upper floors of Rauner Library and the Steele Chemistry Building.

From the late 1880s to 1930, a community of artists thrived in Cornish and Plainfield, New Hampshire as well as Windsor, Vermont. Besides Augustus Saint Gaudens, other artists built their homes specifically sited towards the mountain, and it became the focal point of many expansive gardens and Italianate villas. Maxfield Parrish, Charles Platt, Thomas Dewing, and Winston Churchill (the writer) all built homes to view the mountain. Many of these houses remain, view intact, and the estate Augustus Saint Gaudens is now a national park, with, of course, a lovely view.

Mount Ascutney is part of the White Mountain plutonic volcanic series of igneous rocks. These rocks intruded from Triassic to Cretaceous time in southern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont with the relatively young Ascutney pluton intruding at ~122 MA (K/Ar date on biotite). The Ascutney pluton is about 8 km × 4 km in map area and intrudes into Precambrian basement gneisses of the Chester dome and overlying Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks. The pluton emplacement is probably related to the formation of transform faults and/or fracture zones during (failed) Mesozoic rifting. The petrology of the pluton consists of three stocks which are gabbro diorite, syenite and granite. There are also a partial ring dike and a number of other dikes in the area. The last glacier broke material off the mountain and distributed it southward into Massachusetts. The trail it left is known as the "Mount Ascutney Train."

Mount Ascutney is a hang gliding site in New England. Notable for its excellent soaring, it is not unusual for hang gliders to fly from Mt. Ascutney to nearby states. Some trips can stretch to the New Hampshire or Massachusetts coastline, a flight of over 90 miles.

Actor Charles Bronson owned a farm near the mountain he and his wife named Zuleika, after their daughter. His remains were buried at Brownsville Cemetery in West Windsor, near the foot of the mountain, after his 2003 death.

Wild turkeys, deer, porcupines, and a wide variety of birds are commonly seen on Mt. Ascutney. The mountain is a favorite area for viewing migrating birds, which use the Connecticut River as a navigation pathway. More rarely seen wildlife includes moose, black bears, bobcats and fishers.

Mt. Ascutney was home to the Ascutney Mountain Resort, which was a ski resort located on the mountain's northwest face, in the village of Brownsville. The ski area closed in 2010, and is now a nature preserve with plans to reopen a smaller ski area. Opening after the end of World War II, skiing facilities originally consisted of just one rope tow. The resort property was purchased by IHG Resorts in 2008 andcontinues to renovate and improve the property. The mountain and trails were purchased by a non profit organization Vermont Outdoors and is now operated as town forest for Brownsville Vermont. The trails accommodate the entire family, but expert and intermediate skiers found themselves most at home at the resort, whose trails averaged from medium grade to steep, and were often icy from the mountain's often harsh winds. The ski resort's primary competitors were Killington, Okemo, Mount Sunapee, and Stratton.