Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Forests open 16 Sept

Yeah!

The store will open Thursday and start cooking Friday 9 AM will keep the closing of the kitchen 6 :45 PM this gives us time to clean and get the are clean before dark ,this is bear country and the pattern is they travel from the Meysan drainage up the creek in the shadow and search for food.
Several fires on the west side smoke very dense last night and coming over the crest,and into our Valley. Like the northern fires the level of smoke is based on wind direction.Mask would help but would also restrict your intake I mean at the upper elevation you will have added loss of air and many are bothered with no smoke.
Next watch for closures from the Park and see if your permit has any restrictions.

I saw an unofficial notice that it will be pushed back to the 22nd...

Those fires in SEKI are in the thousands of acres... with no containment forecast yet (09.15.21 am).

We haven't seen across the IWV in a few days...and I'm really tired of the #$@%^&% headaches this is smoke causing.

I see the Sept 22 date also ,but on the press release that is for several forest (4) in Southern California .

I noticed on the Rec.gov site that available permits show up
starting on the 18th. FWIW

Well, I have a permit for next Wednesday, but looking at the web camera, the smoke from the fires may cancel my hike. It really looks bad.

paul

I think this may be smoke from the Windy Fire (Sequoia National Forest) from Wyleys Knob this morning. (About 20 minutes before I took this photo, there was a single smoke plume that looked like an atomic bomb mushroom. Amazing how quickly the fire spread.)

Wind was blowing from the east, so the smoke was staying away.

Doug (or anyone), do you have an update to the open/closed status of the Main Trail and Whitney Portal Store? I have a permit for 9/25, which is always a great excuse for plate sized pancakes and delicious Burgers!

Store is open and the main trail and area is open best I know no restrictions in the Inyo NF but check the region 5 website

Thanks Doug!
Keep the grill hot.

How early do you start cooking pancakes on Saturday Doug?

Hello...planning on coming up there to do some hiking this weekend...how are the smoke conditions? Thanks in advance

https://fire.airnow.gov

Shows smoke plumes and alerts...
At the moment, all of the sensors near Lone Pine are Red (Unhealthy)

The fires are mostly west of Mt. Whitney, so the amount of smoke on the mountain and in the Owens Valley is entirely dependent on the wind direction.
The forecast that I read shows that the wind should shift back from the east over the next 2 days, so hopefully clear air will prevail again for the weekend. Keep an eye on the forecast and the webcams!
Good luck, I plan to be up there this weekend as well.

Thank you so much!

After months of hauling my 70yo self up and down the Radamacher hills south of Ridgecrest with weighted backpack to get into shape for Whitney, I am almost ready to admit defeat - the smoke from the French, Walker, and Windy fires have shut down my training and the Forest Service cancelled my reservations. Maybe November if the weather holds out dry and the fires stop.

Being smart about your health is not a defeat...
It is a disappointment...

Is there another closure that I haven't paid attention to?

And, looking at the longer range weather forecast, it looks like easterly winds will prevail for a while...within the next few days.

DON'T BLAME ME IF THIS IS WRONG...I'M NOT THE FORECASTER!

No new closures that I am aware of. My cancelled reservations were for the 2nd and 9th of Sept. New reservations are very hard to come by. Any chance for my hiking Whitney this year will be in the post-reservation time frame.

If the Inyo National Forest is no longer closed, why have they not updated their website? Do they not realize the most logical and quickest way to get information to their customers is through their website? The only closure order I find is the original one from August 24 that closes the forest through December 31. Does anyone have a link to more current information?

Before anyone suggests calling the Inyo NF Wilderness Permit Office, I've already tried that several times. They do not answer their phone. They also do not have a system that allows for leaving messages and getting returned calls. This is abysmal customer service and taxpayers deserve better.

And while I'm on that topic, there have been many billions of federal dollars appropriated to government entities for Covid relief. Yesterday on the news I saw a story that said cities and counties (that were crying for relief funding) have spent only about 2 percent of all the money available. So I'm not ready to concede that maybe the Forest Service can't find or hire workers. If that's not the case, then it looks like there's some mismanagement involved. If anyone would like to argue otherwise, have at it. If it sounds like I'm a little $%#@!! or depressed, it's because I just canceled my Mt. Whitney reservation starting next Saturday. It's not an ideal time of year but was all I could get. My partners all bailed on me, so I'll have to try again next year. On top of that, the El Dorado National Forest extended their closure area for the Caldor Fire until next Spring. That's fine for the fire area. I can understand that. But their closure includes the Carson Pass area on Hwy 88. The fire never reached there and Carson Pass also serves as a popular Sno-Park for skiing and snowshoeing. So it's closed all Winter unless they revise the closure area. Happy trails everyone!