"Everything I have read (and am counting on for my HST hike, says you get one permit from the entry jurisdiction, even if you are exiting at Trail Crest, subject to the Trail Crest quota. Even what Inyo publishes says this. What's the story? Inyo is now requiring a separate permit for ENTRY AT TRAIL CREST????"
Salty, I did not know that you were setting up a commercial operation for climbing Whitney. Congrats!
Or perhaps not, and you are a recreational climber.
There are a LOT of people who are interested in doing a guided climb of Whitney. Kurt has told me that he gets such requests very frequently. However, Inyo has decided that they do not want to remove from the recreational hiker permit pool the large number of permits that would go to commercial users. So, NO commercial operators are allowed to use the vastly overused main Whitney trail, it is entirely reserved for recreational hikers.