Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Early Benefit for Lottery Application?

I’m very confused.

On this page:
Recreational Activities -- 2008 Mt. Whitney Lottery
The USDA Forest service says:

When can I apply to the lottery? Applications for the Mt. Whitney Lottery must be mailed in February. Please note that there is no advantage given to the first applications to arrive.

But on this page:
Wilderness Permit Options
in section 4 of the Decision Tree, the Whitney Portal Store says:
Note: Lottery processing begins on February 15, so your odds of getting a reservation are maximized by mailing your application early.

???

Well, that IS confusing. However, on the same Inyo NF page you cited, it also says this:The sentence you quoted (from the "When can I apply to the lottery?" paragraph) is about 7 paragraphs below the "What is the lottery process?" paragraph.

What they really mean is:
There is no advantage given to the first applications to arrive between February 1 and February 14.

On February 15, processing begins, so some applications will be pulled on the 15th, some on the 16th, etc. So you miss the chance of yours being processed those days if your application arrives later. However, whenever your application arrives, between the 15th and 29th, it has the same chance as all the other applications that are unprocessed up to that point in time.

Processing continues until all slots are reserved, and the process is not completed until around the first of April. However, the most popular slots fill up early, so the later your application is processed, the lower your chances of being successful.

Yes, the process has a number of facets.

I believe that the Forest Service was focused on the overachievers who used to fax in their applications on February 1. The Forest Service eliminated the fax option in 2007 after a number of people complained when their applications were not processed (due to technical difficulties). Now applications for the lottery are only received by mail.

What Steve and I meant to say was that you need to consider postal delivery delays when you mail in your application. The postmark only authenticates your application. If your application arrives on February 7 it will be eligible to be processed on February 15, but if your application arrives on March 5, three weeks of processing will already be done before your application will go in the bin. As Steve indicated, many of the popular dates fill up early.

If you look closely at the quotes, the first quote uses the word "arrive" and the second quote uses the word "mailing" (as in drop in a mail box). They are referring to two different points in time.