Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Chances of getting a pass for the Whitney Trail.

I was wondering what the chances were of getting an overnight pass for 3 nights to hike the Whitney trail in mid September for 4 people by walking in to the Lone Pine Ranger station? I want to walk in, get a permit, and start on the trail that day. Is it hard to get a walkin permit?
Thanks,

At the moment, it looks like there are even plenty of the reservable overnight permits for the Main Trail, beginning Sep 11 and going forward (except for the weekend after that).

See:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/permits_res/whitney_avail.html

and scroll down to the September Overnight calendar.

CaT

Your chances are excellent. The number of nights doesn't matter, only the start date.

Last Saturday the quota (60) was filled by advance reservations, of course. Then people with reservations started showing up at the ranger station with vacancies in their party. And at 11:00 the day's no-show reservations are released. I walked in shortly after noon and there were 13 openings at that time (12 after I left). This is 21% of the entire quota.

This was a weekend day in the heart of the season.

But timing is important. The day starts with few or no openings, then they gradually increase throughout the day. If you are there at 8:00 when they open, there may not be 4 available. So just hang around a while. Fortunately, if you start hiking at noon, you will still be able to get to Trail Camp in time for dinner.

PS. My reading of the FS web site indicates that there are no openings currently in September.

Bob is correct. I was looking at October while thinking I was looking at September. Thanks for the catch, Bob.

CaT

Bob, I have a followup question relating to your statement that <em>"The number of nights doesn't matter, only the start date."</em>

Say I want an overnight permit for Saturday night, but I can't get to the Ranger Station on Saturday.

Can I get a permit for two nights on Friday, and then use it just on Saturday?

Is that considered bad form (since it theoretically denies somebody a permit on Friday night)?

They are quite strict on this. If you get a permit for Saturday, say, you must start up the trail between 12:01 AM and 11:59 PM on Saturday. (Actually midnight to midnight.) It doesn't matter how many nights you want to stay out, except there is a maximum stay per trip of nominally 2 weeks.

They will ask you how many nights you are going to be out, and where your planned campsites are, and that info will appear on your permit. But your answers do not affect whether you will get your permit or not (for Saturday); it only helps them in assessing backcountry use. And there is no problem if you come out early or late - even by many days.

If your permit is for Saturday, you must pick it up by 11:00 AM on that day or it will be released to others. I believe, though, you can call them and they will hold it for you. Hold it, I believe, until closing time. Whether they will put it in the outside box for you to pick up after they close, I don't know. Most cases of people wanting to pick up permits when the ranger station is closed involve early pickups, not late ones. They may feel that if they put the permit outside for you to ostensibly pick up in time to start hiking by 11:59 PM, you may instead start in on Sunday - which would be the next day, hence "illegal."

If your permit is for Saturday, you can actually pick it up on Friday after 10:00 AM. But you cannot start hiking until that night at midnight.

There are some caveats, such as the Trail Crest quotas and Muir Trail hikers, but they only come into play infrequently.

Thanks, I was afraid of that. I guess I'll have to get back to the ranger station on Saturday afternoon and hope for the best.