January, 2012:  The 2012 Whitney Permit lottery is Online only. Links:
    Mt Whitney Permit Reservations 2012
    2012 Whitney Permit Lottery information now available

Edit Dec 3, 2010:  The 2011 Lottery information is here:  Whitney Lottery Application 2011

Edit June 6:  You can see the numbers of unused permits for 2010 and prior years here.

Edit April 26:  you can see what is currently available from the Inyo National Forest Mt. Whitney Trail Reservation Availability web pages:Spots available May through July were available as of Wednesday, April 21.  August and later are available for phone-in requests as of Wednesday, April 28.  Phone number is 760-873-2483

Edit April 10:  The lottery application period ended Feb 28, and Inyo National Forest staff have completed processing the 7,370 applications they received.  You can see the posts about the lottery progress here. (Last updated Wednesday April 7.)



Inyo National Forest staff have posted the 2010 Mt. Whitney Lottery Application forms.

Just remember, forms must NOT be mailed until February 1, 2010.

The Inyo web page with the applications is here:    Recreational Activities - Mt. Whitney Lottery

Here are the links to the application forms. You have to print one, fill it out, then mail it.
And just to provide a backup location (in case the N.F. web site has any trouble), the same docs can be found here:

Edit:   For planning purposes, you can look at the Unused Whitney Permits - 2009 information. It has a column to show the permits available on 4/1 (immediately after all lottery apps were processed), as well as the number unused after the actual date.  Based on the numbers there, NOBODY should be entering the lottery for a May hike except maybe overnighters on the Memorial weekend.  The same goes for most days in October.

Last edited by Steve C; 01/20/12 10:24 PM.