Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board https://www.recreation.gov

First day for permit lottery , Day and Overnight trips into the Whitney Zone,

Check out all the details and make it clear you understand where to pick up the permit and when!!! The last thing you want to happen is show up at the store on the day of your hike and find out No we Do Not have your ticket thing or that you have the letter unopened and we may read it together .

Check out the walk in camp sites long before you reserve a Site in the Portal Campground , the walk in sites (25 sites) are at the trail head, The sites that are in the Family Campground are about 1/2 miles away from the trail head. So you will need to move your "stuff" in the middle of the night if you only reserve a site for one night, Also if you take a site and leave it empty as you hike you may have booked the site a family that wasn't interested in Climbing Whitney but wanted to stay on the yearly vacation in the area.

Ok so more dribble May we can have snow/ ice on the trail and some years into mid June so if you are not experienced with winter travel you do not select May to mid June or October .

Many thousands of people make this trip each year , the hike is long so plan 16 -20 hours for a day hike ,going faster will only increase your chance of not doing well , Come to the area a few days in advance to find the bathrooms ,the walkin sites and the trailhead and get your permit.

Read the story about Grandma Whitney her last climb was at 91 years young! What did she do that worked?????


When you get to the page on https://www.recreation.gov Type in Mount Whitney Permits and that should take you to the application page

See you on the Mountain!

got my reply this morning HOORAY!! got my first pick even... 4th year in a row, second overnight trip.. see you in September!

Congrats. Got mine too - Oct 4th overnight permit. Can't wait to try again after several years.

Email this morning. First selection for four. Tuesday after Labor Day on the trail. Yea!!!

Heading out to buy a single Powerball ticket now...

Let's give that 91 year old woman her name. She was Hulda Crooks and, if l'm right, she summited Whitney the first time when she was 65 and then did it every year on her birthday, which adds up to 26 times.

Hulda would stay behind our trailer the last few years she hiked the mountain and then one day she would pack up and head up the mountain , no plan of how far she would go or if she would reach the summit .She came back several times to sign books at the picnic area at 100, and I think 101 .Forgot the time she was flown up to name the Peak for her.

Applied for a single day permit weekdays only in August, used all 15 alternate dates. Surprisingly didn't get anything. Will try 4/1 and again 5/1 or end up just doing walk-in. I can hang out a few days or more until I get a walk-in.

How is it possible that right at 7am all available permits disappear? How can hundreds of people click faster than me when I clicked exactly at 7am?? And I thought getting tickets on TicketMaster was hard...

mahu1982 try hanging around the calendar and wait to see if a date opens. I initially clicked right at 10AM as well with no luck. But after an hour or two of checking the calendar a date opened for me.

Well looks like if you live on the East Coast the click distance is shorter and they get the permits?
OK so serious now , Fourth of July was the open day till people started seeing 50-60 open permits and started coming and now that is over .So hate to spread the news the last week of August is a slow period some permits for day hikes , and after the Labor Day weekend, week days can have days with several no show permits. Weather can be a factor watch for a storm and some that need to travel long distances may cancel. Other events happen that can cause permits to open so watch the news , for example when they report heavy Snow in the Sierra ,Flooding, Fires always check if this is a report for 500 miles north! Good Luck

And there's always the "Tanya Harding plan" as a last resort...

Please Jeff, as Doug points out, if you tell everyone else about it, everyone else will start doing it too.

Dale B. Dalrymple

Looking at the 2014 Day Use Permit USFS usage it looks like there are plenty of no-shows even in August on weekdays. So if I don't get one on May 1 or in the weeks leading up to it, a walk-in is a realistic possibility.

Just make sure you're wearing shin guards if you use the bathroom at the Visitor Center...

My trick over the years is to drive up early to the Visitors Center before opening and casually walk up and down the line reminding people that once inside they will be screened for drugs and then subject to a cavity search. Usually empties the line by half.

So it is entirely possible to get permits by trolling recreation.gov starting 2-3 weeks before your trip and looking for cancellations. Sometimes openings show up just a few days before the desired start date, sometimes a few weeks below the desired start date. I've never gotten skunked.

I realize this can be difficult advice for someone traveling from the East Coast. But if you (1) pick a desired day in midweek, plus or minus a day; (2) troll recreation.gov compulsively for cancellations for a few weeks before your trip; and if that fails, (3) just show up as a walk-in for one or two days in a row, your chances of scoring a permit one way or another are virtually 100%.

If you really want to be safe, have a backup plan (e.g., climbing Mt. Langley out of Cottonwood Lakes or Cottonwood Pass trailheads, easier permit to get in advance or as a walk in, or White Mountain, no permit needed). But you won't need your back up plan if you do (1), (2), and (3).

Langley is another 14er just south of Whitney. It is a very beautiful hike. White Mountain is a 14er in a different but nearby mountain range. It is a day hike...much easier than Whitney. At 14,252, it is the third tallest mountain in California. And if you visit White Mountain, you can also take a side trip on the way to see the oldest living individual nonclonal tree in the world (over 5000 years old).

I bet using my native tongue, German, your success rate would be even higher! ;-)

"How is it possible that right at 7am all available permits disappear?" /// there were probably very few left for sale on that april 1st mini sale, and none for july or august..All that would have been for sale would be the few dates no one applied for, most likely the early and late dates.. people probably thought it was another huge snow year and all applied for later permits so there are extras for early in the season...YEP- just took a look ,there are literally hundreds of permits available in May!! but for sure, be online early May 1st everything goes faster and faster every year.. good luck, i have found quite a few leftover permits by checking back on may 1st// but again, july and august are tough obviously. here is a great chart of last year's results for number nerds https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd536528.pdf