I was lucky enough to win a Whitney Trail (Overnight) permit for late June this year.
Since I live out of state, I am hoping to tack on Mt. Russell to this trip so I don't need to deal with the difficult permit logistics on a separate visit.
The permit allowed me to choose an Exit Point of North Fork of Lone Pine Creek - JM34, with a campsite at UBSL.
Is this sufficient to hike Mt. Russell? I have been looking into trip reports and planning on descending the north face of Whitney and ascending the southwest face of Russell, with a descent down the east ridge to Carillon and out North Fork back to the portal.
I haven't been able to find anything conclusive about this. One ranger emailed me and said it was okay, but when I called a different office on the phone, they said I needed a separate permit. I understand I need the North Fork/day use permit to ascend the routes on that side - but what about descend if I am ascending from the Sequoia NP side? The fact they let me choose a campsite in North Fork is confusing to me.
