Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lottery needs a change

WHY DO YOU LOOK ON THE PERMIT PAGE NOW AND SEE THAT THE SAME DAY I WANTED THERE ARE PERMITS
BUT I GOT TURNED DOWN IN FEBRUARY?
MAYBE THEY WERE TOO BUSY HELPING THE FISH AND GAME SHOOT SCARED,TRAINED TIGERS IN VENTURA

AND PLEASE DONT POST THEY DIDNT HAVE AN EXACT NUMBER WHEN I SENT MY REQUEST IN.

THEY DIDNT HAVE AN EXACT NUMBER WHEN I SENT MY REQUEST IN.

NextDrink: Did you request a dayhike permit or an overnight permit? Notice <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/whitneyavail.shtml" target="_new"> on that page,</a> there are two separate tables for each month -- the first is overnight, the second is dayhike.

If you are sure you requested the right one, give them a phone call and ask what went wrong -- it would only take a couple of minutes.

Who knows... Maybe it was because you faxed at 6 AM on Feb 1, and they threw everything out that came in before their workday started at 8 AM.

And if you call them, please try not to tick them off with your disdain for the entire system -- you will get more information and more help from people if you work within their system.

Good luck!

I had a problem with my permit and I called the forest service in bishop. The nice lady I talked to was very helpful and took care of everything. I couldn't be happier. Morale of the story: I was extremely nice and friendly. I said Please and Thank you. And I asked rather than told her what needed to be done.

Being polite goes a long way. There have been a couple of times that they have made exceptions to the rules because of a few please and thank you.

I agree with being extremely nice. I ran into some problems faxing my application to them and was able to work it out over the phone with them. They were very friendly and very helpful. I was also extremely friendly and did exactly what they told me to do. I'm not sure its a coincidence that I got selected for my first choice of Labor Day weekend. I'm stoked!

That's it... I am sending her some flowers right now!!

I agree on this point, I placed a request for overnight this time at six different times, including not so popular times. And got back nothing. I'll probably try again in April, but a word for Steve C, the staff that answer calls have the attitude first, not the callers.

I've tried to call and ask questions, and I've gotten one reasonable, polite staff member for every five. And I try to be as considerate as possible when I start the conversation. The attitude that makes things worse every time is a staff person not tolerating ANY question that they think we can figure out by looking through every last word on the website(s) or going through every sequence on the phone system.

Some of us know that there are things going on between the lines where the staff simply dread every interaction with a person they have instead of being out on the trail or doing something else. This is one of the reasons those that can find another way around the main trail WILL.

Obviously, I was backing nextdrink on that last message. I bet for every positive story posted here there is at least ten more that would tell the other story and not getting a break with the right staffperson on the phone.

If you all want to talk to a live ranger, press 0
(zero) after the really lonnnnnnnggggggg recording comes on, otherwise you run up a substantial phone bill. And yes being nice really helps. A couple of years ago there was confusion on my permit request and the ranger called me. We talked,the day I wanted wasn't available. I did not jump all over him and call him names. He said he would be sure to do whatever he could to secure me a permit, which I got.

I had this problem last year with my JMT trip, where my #2 requested date still had 2 openings, and I was just 1 person. So I called them up, talked to a ranger at the Bishop Station and 5 days later I had my accepted permit in hand. Moral of the story, these Rangers put up with a lot of b*@#hing and moaning from people who rightfully get denied(we can't all win) and from people who constantly call asking questions that the website can answer, so give them some slack as well. For an agency that doesn't seem to get a lot of love from most people, I give them props for being as patient as they are.
Eric J Lee

With one exception, everyone I've dealt with in the past at either the Lone Pine or Bishop offices have been just fine, patient, have gone out of their way to be helpful, and have responded in kind to my being polite and friendly. The lone exception is one semi-senior lady at the Lone Pine station who should seriously think about either retiring or getting into a different line of work. I have never had a good experience with her either in person or on the phone. But with everyone else, no problems.

CaT

I hate to get involved with an emotionally charged issue like this. For the most part the forest service employees have been nice to me, although I have experienced some frustration over the counter when they didn't seem to be willing or able to understand my position.

Unfortunately there are too many people who want to experience the Mount Whitney trail...more then there is room. As much as I do not like the limitations and restrictions, I realize the answer is not to let hundreds and hundreds of people overwhelm the trail at the same time. There have to be some guidelines.

I suppose the forest service employees do the best they can under the circumstances...in trying to protect the Mount Whitney area and let as many people as reasonable visit. They don't have an easy job sometimes.

So what are we left with? There is still room to day hike the Mt. Whitney trail this year. And there are still 2 other reasonable options to backpack....The MR if you are up to it....The Horseshoe Meadows trail through Crabtree meadows (a little longer but very nice).

I gave up on any chance to backpack the regular Mount Whitney trail years ago...with no regrets...but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the area. There are many ***els waiting to be discovered.

Funny if I did my job wrong as much as our great wilderness people do I would have been fired.
Too many people being turned down and than discovering the open date on the page.

Bottom line is we wont b**ch if they would get it right the first time.

The comments about the other trails to consider is what I'm considering now with some friends that hit the Mt. Whitney Trail last year with me. There are other options.

However, all the nice comments here supporting being courteous with the rangers is always the 'right' way to go. I just think one HAS to acknowledge that as many times people are demanding too much on an overused trail, there are rangers that really don't like people or have little if any people skills. I don't think this is an emotional point, it's an objective observation.

To seriously address the issue, I'd just say that we don't know what nextdrink did in his/her application. Perhaps there were 5 spaces left, and he requested 6, for example. There can be a lot of mitigating circumstances, and it is probably not fair to make a series of assumptions, all one-sided to the FS detriment.

I must agree with jt. The rangers have a "tough" job trying to acommodate everyone's requests. I had an absolutely wonderful experience on the phone today with a lady at the Mt. Whitney Ranger Station. She not only added 3 people to my permit to enter at Onion Valley (Kearsarge Pass trailhead), she did what she called a "borrowed quota" from the next day to allow our party of 11 to exit the Main Whitney trail as one group on September 5th!!(Our exit permit) I mean she really went out of her way to make our trip complete. I have nothing but good things to say about the FS and how they are handling a difficult job keeping everyone happy! Let's cut them a little slack and let them do their job!