Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Whitney Lottery 2014

Frank: I didn't know they were limiting people to permits for only one date.

By the way, Mountaineers Route overnight permits are NOT part of the lottery. You need the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek JM34 permit. Quota is 10 per day, 6 become available 6 months in advance, 4 available to walk-in requests at 11 AM the day before.

Checking recreation.gov, there are currently 2 slots available for Wednesday, Aug 6, for that JM34 Mountaineers Route.

Thanks for info Steve. I'll book something tonight, maybe there's a date that works with 4 spots available. Can I use my Whitney day permits for a hike up the Mountaineer's Route?

I was able to book those 2 permits for 8-6 on my own account (I have 2 current permits - 4 person day hike 7-17, will scout MR and 2 person overnight JM34 on 8-6) Thanks Steve for setting me straight on which permit I needed. Lucky for me the only spots available were for the exact day I wanted, although I wanted 4 instead of 2. I will continue monitoring availability and consider taking someone hoping to get one of the 4 walk-in permits. Any advice on how to maximize our chances of getting 1 or 2 of those? Am I correct that with my Whitney Day hike permit I can go up the MR?

Frank, welcome to the "ConfusionZone", where nobody knows all the rules. Yes, you can use your "Day Use" Whitney Permits to hike the Mountaineers Route. In fact that is what is required for day-only access. It is only the overnight that is separate from the lottery.

Continuing monitoring available: Besides your two, there are only 4 other permits reserved for that "trail", so seeing any cancellations is a remote possibility. Checking the last 2 weeks before that date would be most likely.

To maximize your chances: First, call the wilderness permit number and ask: "Would you be able to grab two of the walk-in permits at any of the other 3 Inyo permit offices, or MUST you get in line at the Lone Pine Visitor Center?" If another office is possible, be there before 11 AM the day before (Aug 5), be first in line, and you will beat out people in Lone Pine queuing up in the 11 AM line for the 4 available walk-in slots. If other-office pickup is not allowed, be at the Lone Pine VC by 10:45 the day before, put your name in for the drawing. In fact, everyone in your party should act independently and enter the drawing (mini-lottery), so you have more chances to be processed sooner.

Third option: On Aug 5 when you are trying for the Aug 6, see if there are any no-shows for Aug 5 (they are declared at 11 AM Aug 5, I think). If there are, and no Aug 6 are available, use those, hike up to Lower Boy Scout Lk, and camp the first night.

Steve, I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying we can get an Aug 5 overnight permit and all camp overnight at Lower Boy Scout lake? Some in the party would have Aug 5 overnight permit(s) and some would have Aug 6 overnight permits? Is no permit required there? Also how about this: can some one get 2 Whitney day permits - 1 for Aug 5 and 1 for Aug 6 and use those to go on an overnight hike up the Mountaineers Route? If checked by the Ranger a valid permit for either day could be shown?

I am saying: You go, planning to spend ONE night, Aug 6, in the North Fork area, climb the MR, then hike out. BUT, on Aug 5 at 11 AM, if you aren't able to snag the 4 walk-in permits (because someone else drew a lower number out of the hat), there just might be some no-shows (out of the 6 reserved) to start the hike on Aug 5. So, you decide to take those. It's already 11 AM, so you go to the store and pick up more rations for another dinner and breakfast, head up the North Fork starting late -- 4 PM would even be ok, since you can make it to Lower B.S. Lake in under 2 hours. Eat dinner and make camp.

...Next morning, wait for other hikers (or even hike down without the pack) and walk in again with the hikers with the Aug 6 permits. On Aug 6, everyone hikes up to Upper B.S. Lk or higher, and makes camp. On Aug 7 everyone climbs to the summit.

And you could then spend another night in the North Fork area -- Once you get INTO the area on a valid permit, you can stay indefinitely -- only you have to move every 2 weeks

Getting multiple day permits isn't a good idea. Ranger can see you are carrying overnight gear (or find you at your camp).

I see there are now 3 permits available for overnight North Fork of Lone Pine Creek for Tues Aug 5

Choices, choices! ...now what are you going to do?

Permit office would probably switch them for you if you called.

Hey everybody,

Hope your April is going good!

2 quick questions and forgive me if they've been covered earlier.

1. Can you pick up your day pass the day before, so you can hike at the crack of dawn?

and

2. To confirm the day pass for all slots, do you need the names of all people or can you just pay their $15 part?

Thanks,

Chris

I called and was instructed to do it online. First I tried to book the three spots on Aug 5. I couldn't because I had overlapping dates. So I cancelled my Aug 6 permit for two, received a $30 refund, and then booked the three spots for Aug 5. - Progress.

Called and got answers to both questions. Nice lady there. Very helpful.

Another in my group threw me a question. Is there only 1 copy of the permit and only 1 person in the group can pick it up at a time? Thanks for any response.

-Chris

Whoever made application, and the named alternative, can pick up the permit. You will need ID.

What John said, and I would add: Only one copy. In previous years, they used to issue hang-tags for each member in the party to hang on their pack, but that ended. If I were the group leader, I would take along a piece of paper for each person, and write the permit number on each one, so if people split up (not a great idea), they will have the permit documentation.

How did you get a refund. I thought it was not refundable?

Reno Frank is working on an overnight North Fork Lone Pine Creek (Mountaineers Route) trip. It is outside the lottery, so refunds are given for cancellations. But only 10 slots for that route per day.

Thanks for the answers guys! Love this forum!

Hey you guys wouldn't happen to know if kids can hit the Whitney trail for free, not having to be on the permit. I have a 7-year old nephew who might want to check it out.

Thanks again and Happy Easter weekend!

-Chris

Where is the place to try to connect with people who have an extra permit? Is there a forum for that? Looking for one more permit for Sunday June 22. Thanks for the advice.

Topher Chris, each hiker needs a permit, sorry. But seriously, the unused permits are pretty easy to get.

Ntintle: Buying, selling, exchanging is practically impossible, but picking up unused ones is they way to go. Reality is that very few hikers visit this site, so even though the information is here, lots of people don't know about the walk-in system. Here's a thread to start reading: Permit needed for June 3rd In it, find the link to the Unused Whitney Permits. Checking there, I see that last year, there was never a full-quota day until June 30, for both overnight and day hikes.

Today is April 30, the last day for lottery winners to pay the $15 per hiker fee and accept their slots. In past years, quite a number of won slots are never accepted, and at the end of Apr 30, those slots are made available to anyone via the Recreation.gov website. The slots become available at random times throughout the day on May 1, not all at once.

So tomorrow, if people want slots, checking in often is a good idea.

Here are links, set to July 1. You may need to enter a group size, and click "Find Permits" to see what is available.

DAY USE of Mt. Whitney Zone

Mt. Whitney Trail Overnight Permit

Thanks for posting the reminder Steve. It was a huge hassle, but I managed to reserve 6 permits for Sept 8th, which was my preferred date all along.

It may be just an issue with the two laptops I have access to, but I could not reserve permits using google chrome. I could reserve permits on either laptop using IE.

Same here. I think lot of websites are not optimized for Chrome (including my company's intranet which is weird) but IE works just fine. I also found out that Chrome's autofill settings create problems - auto populated fields are not recognized.