Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Help...If R leader can't........

Help,
If our leader (permitted name) can't make it
due a pending deployment to Iraq or the some
death trap in the Afgan. Hills; can any member
of the group pick up the permit at the Ranger
Station with the authorization letter in hand??
Or will we need to call our local Congressman
for political help? Since most members of the group
are active duty or reserves.

My understanding is that if your name is listed as the alternate leader on the Wilderness Permit Application, you should be able to pick up your permit at the ranger station.

Last year our permitted leader could not make the trip due to medical reasons. We had no problem getting our permit using one of the alernately listed leaders. The permit application states, "It is recommended that there are three(3) listed alternates: others in the group that may use the permit in your absence".

A couple times in the past, the person in our group who applied for the permit was unable to go. They just called the permit office in Bishop & asked them to add the name of another person in the group as an alternate leader. On one occasion, it was only a few days ahead of the trip, but we had no problem with the newly-named leader picking up the permit at the Lone Pine ranger station.

Thanks for the updates guys.
Was trying to get to the top of San Gorginio
here in So. Cal. the last few days,
needless to say-airports on lap taps
only reach so far.