Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney 1 day Hike Training

I have been told otherwise by the rangers. They stated that dayhikes begin at the trailhead. Your permit is trailhead to summit to trailhead. Therefore, you cannot start on the trail until midnight (even though you can hike as far as the boundary anytime). Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? At any rate, four of our five dayhike summits had 10PM starts. There are no rangers on the trail that late looking for early starting scofflaws.

My suggestion is to determine which is more important: summit at sunrise? or Whitney in a day?. Both are excellent goals but not sure if they can be done together legally (unless you hike real fast) considering the start time you'll need. You probably won't get caught but why "taint" your first Whitney trip with that? Just IMHO.

The two cents worth I'll throw in is to get to trail camp and stay overnight (need an overnight permit obviously) therefore ensuring a early start for a summit sunrise. Not hiking at night will also enable you to see the beauty of the trail as you hike up. The amazing scenery of the Sierras never fails to amaze me and the MMWT is a real gem in that regards. Give yourself extra time to acclimate which sounds like an unknown factor for you at this point. Take it easy for this first trip and enjoy all that is Whitney and consider a day trip next time - you'll know the trail and how you react to altitude. The mountain will always be there.

The Vivian Creek trail on San Gorgonio is a good training hike for Whitney IMO. It's got alot of gain (5600') in a shorter distance (8 miles). I did this hike for the first time as a day hike two weeks after I summitted Whitney and was suprised at how tough it was, especially the first part. The summit of SG is 11,500 so it probably won't help you acclimate but the trail should be a good test of your physical shape.

Just to clarify the idea of where your Day Hike permit is required: You can hike ANY time up to Lone Pine Lake, and without a permit.

It is only after Lone Pine Lake that the Day Hike permit is required.

This issue comes up from time to time, and I have verified with Inyo staff in Bishop: You only need the Day Hike permit starting at LP Lake. It is NOT required below that point. So you can legally start your day hike before midnight.

However, an overnight wilderness permit IS required, starting at the trail head, if you carry overnight gear up to Lone Pine lake, since you would be camping there (or somewhere beyond). You cannot camp at Lone Pine lake (or anywhere else along the trail) without an overnight wilderness permit -- the same permit as required to camp anywhere on the main trail. ...and therefore, I suppose an overnight trip cannot start before midnight. But who would want to?

John,

There are two ways to look at San Gorgonio...Vivian Creek and South Fork. Vivian as you state is 16 miles RT, +5,960' but South Fork is 22 miles, +4,600'.

I love the Vivian Creek Trail as I love the South Fork Trail doing this both ways within your training regiment. This gets you the gain and distance.

With that said, you have to advance permit, the closed at this time, Vivian Creek Trail. They have not allowed self permitting for this trail...meaning you will getting awfully late start if you walk in at opening and get a permit.

Personally, I like the San Bernardino Peak Trail better...or the Forsee Creek Trail. It's less traveled, prettier and you can go out to San Bernardino East or Anderson and get comparable distance and gain.

Personally, I've never got a "walk in" permit for this trail. Just went online, downloaded and filled out the form, and faxed it off to the number provided. Got my permit faxed back to me that same day everytime, easy peasy. Linky .

Forgot about the closure! Info I read says it will be open after Memorial Day so the OP will have plenty of time to give it a go.

Fax machine? What's that?

In this day and age of no mo' land line. Yeah, I know you can do it by the internet and request drop box...or just call.

Vivian Creek is the only trail that you cannot self permit. The rest you can.

I like the roads less traveled and the prettier ones. That best describes the west end of the SGW. I did not see anyone on Forsee Creek Trail Saturday...I did not even see anyone footprints attempting to cross the snow at 8,300' to 8,600' to go higher.