Going to ME/NH Soon

My wife and I will be traveling back East in about a month to visit family and friends and enjoy the fall weather. We are planning to climb in New Hampshire October 4th -7th. I am trying to figure out the best days to tackle our desired routes. My question is, how busy would the Standard Route on Whitehorse be on a Sunday in October? Are we talking the First Flatiron in terms of sheer numbers? What's use like this time of year on weekdays?

If the weather is good, then expect Standard to be busy on a Sunday. Probably something along the lines of the regular routes on the 1st and the 3rd. However, like the 1st and the 3rd, there's plenty of quality routes that won't be as busy, and there's lots of variations to pass folks if you are moving fast. My personal favorite on the slabs is the Beginner Route (5.3-5.4). Despite the name, it's got consistently great climbing, the same great views, doesn't get as crowded, and unlike Standard, can be rapped with one 70m rope from more than halfway up.

Midweek, it'll probably be more open, but that is leaf-peeping season. Maybe 2-3 parties a day (someone back me up here...)?

Thanks for the reply Coz.

Standard Route also tends to attract parties larger than 2, some of them guided, so you can expect crowding on weekends or sometimes during the week.

Not to miss the Whitehorse experience in peak leaf season, though -- your best chance would be to walk up with a guidebook and a flexible state of mind, and see what routes look most open. Besides the Beginner's Route mentioned above, there is also fine climbing at slightly higher grades on Sliding Board, the Wedge, Sea of Holes, and several others. Sliding Board shares a start with Standard Route, but the others are independent. It's possible to find unexpected crowding or unexpected vacancy on any given route, any day (like the Flatirons).

With two ropes you'll have max flexibility on what to climb and when to bail. On the other hand, they're not actually needed for the climbing, and it's a fine thing to reach the summit and walk off if you can.

For any of the routes, you don't need a whole lot of gear.

It may not be the nicest thing, but you can often get away with it without slowing down other parties. If you're comfortable soloing 5.5 slab then you can shoot by multiple parties who you would otherwise be stuck behind. Not a smart choice 100% of the time, but when applied in appropriate situations it can save you hours per route.

Good advice all around, thanks so much. We'll bring two ropes and a flexible attitude and see what happens. The summit and the walk off is the goal, we may shoot for an alpine start and thus hopefully beat the crowds. Thanks again.