Thanks, everyone!
Here's our background:
We are a family of four, and we'll be traveling across country to get there. So we don't want to _not_ be able to do it! (I love message boards for EVERYTHING - hiking planning tips, that busted valve on the minivan radiator, how to make grape ketchup... crowd-sourced opinions always yield better and cheaper info than sponsored opinions!)
We do have flexibility, so if it's a near-sure-thing, then we may find this advice is perfect. We're planning to spend a month in California and want to see Yosemite, the coast, some relatives, the kids want to return to Joshua Tree - and Mt. Whitney. So the flexibility part means we need to work in the other places that will need reservations, such as Yosemite, but we can do other things in between if need be. Husband wants to hike Boundary Peak in Nevada as an acclimatization trip (I think trying this 2 days before Whitney is pushing things; he has such optimism!)
So we are semi-flexible. Tell me more about the walk-in permit process? Can one get permits many days out (e.g. early on in our month), or only next-day? Can someone else pick them up for us?
Maybe this option has some bonus aspects in that we can watch weather, too.
The Mountaineers route seems kinda fun to do the short rope part, but the cost is significant, and we're happy just hiking the main trail. So the guided option is really just to guarantee us a spot, not because we are set on that route.
It's going to be a big deal for us, and we're very excited. We _think_ we're ready; we've done long hikes, we've done overnight, we've done guided rope-climbing, we've done huge-rock and loose grit scramble, we've done bad weather and we've done 14,000+ feet - we've just never done them all at once.
So - tell me more about the process (or point me to threads or search-words that I can read past discussions). THANKS!!
