Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board How to obtain permit reservation form?

Does anyone know how to get a form to fax in next year for the Whitney permits? Do you have to call the Forest Service to have them fax or mail you one? I've looked all over the Forest Service site, and although it tells you a lot of things you need to know, it has no link to a printable reservation form of any kind that I could find. Was thinking they'd have a .pdf to download off the site. Any info would be great. Thanks all....

Hey we have a mountain biker.
Right on!

If you do a search for Inyo national forest you will find their site. You have to click on the small "more" under wilderness permits & reservations. Their information on "how to obtain a wilderness permit" is helpful but does not have the application.....For that you can go to http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/wild/permits.html
In the upper right hand corner is a link to a MS word and pdf application forms. The can be Faxed in.

got it...thanks Kashcraft. Much appreciated. They make those things tough to find!

mtbiker

The current link is still for 2003. I assume that by Feb1, there will be a 2004 form? If applying for a dayhike permit do you write down the same day under entry and exit dates? Can you pick up the permit at say, 2AM the day of the hike?

Tsunami, you can get your permit early in the morning, if you call ahead during business hours and arrange for the ranger station to put the permit in an envelope with your name on it, which is placed in a box outside their door. It's an honor system. Unfortunately, there are occasionally people who steal, and some on this Board have been stuck. A better way, if you have the time, is to arrive at the ranger station the day before, during business hours.

Wayne, I saw some information that said for the dayhike permit, no permit is needed until May 21 or so. i would swear the official information says all the Whitney permits become necessary on May 1. Do you know which is correct? What happens to people caught climbing with no permit? Is the Mt in summer condition in early May or is it warmer and more snow-free June-August?

My party climbed Whitney in July, August, September and early October and we experienced no snow. I beleive that in May there is still quite a bit of snow on the mountain.

Chris

All the info on the Inyo NF site is for 2003. Considering the NF started accepting lottery applications in Feb of 03, you'd think they'd have some info about how to get a permit in 04.

I DO NOT want to miss that lottery.

Tsunami,

If you are talking about doing the Main Whitney Trail, a dayhike permit is required 365 days per year. How you obtain it (via the lottery process or via self-issue at the Lone Pine ranger station) depends on when you want to do the hike. During the non-lottery season, you can just self-issue. During the lottery season (May 1 through November 1), if you have the scheduling flexibility to be able to just show up the day before a particular date that you know has plenty of unused permits still available after the lottery has played out (that info is not released until May 1), then that is an option. On the other hand, if you don't have that flexibility (you only have one or a very few specific dates on which you can dayhike), and you want to hike during the lottery season, then the only way to guarantee that you get the date you want, is to apply through the lottery process (and even then, it's not guaranteed until you actually get it). And so, when filling out your Main Whitney Trail permit application, it's best to submit a few alternate dates, just in case the quota for your main preferred date fills up before your application is pulled out of the "hat" for processing.

People who get caught in the Whitney Zone without a permit are both fined and turned back. Not sure what the exact fine is, but I have heard it is in the $200-$300 range.

CaT