Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Back-to-back day permits?

I asked this Q on another thread, but figured I'd ask in a separate thread.

Just curious if any folks had any succes or problems getting back-to-back day permits?

Last time I tried (in person at the Lone Pine Ranger station), they wouldn’t issue me back-2-backs day permits even though there were plenty available. I explained that I want to do Whitney one day and then Russell the next day. No doing……they said something about it was part of their “policy”. Anyone know of the policy regarding back-2-back day permits?

BTW, I'm not trying to "cheat" and use them for an overnite.

Cheers,
RickG

Grahamcracker:

Jack Northam and I were discussing this very option last week, as he has had the same problem. Basically what you said at the end of your post is apparently the problem: the FS doesn't want to have people "cheating" and spend the night up there. I know I'd like to believe in the inherent goodness in people, but you know how that goes...

-L

Are you referring to the NFS folks or those overnight "cheaters"?

The funny thing about my request (made about mid May) was that both overnight and day permits were available at the time, but they still refused and cited something about "policy". Whitney zone policy......Ugh

Stating the obvious: if you're not going solo, have each partner reserve a permit. If you are, change plans and invite me along. I'll get the permit for the second day hike.

Let's see...

One-day permit= $15.00
Multi-day permit= $15.00

If you want to do a double, why spend $30.00 for 2 one-day permits.

Or am I missing something here?

Have fun.

There are more day hike quotas and they are USUALLY easier to get. I never pay for them anyway - my brother foots the bill for the 1st one and I use walk ins the rest of the year.........................................DUG

What DUG said!

Walk in day-permits don't cost anything. That said, it's not about the $$$. It's about access.

Cheers,
RickG

Last year we had a day permit for August 8th. We got walk-in day permits for the 6th and for 7th on 6th afternoon without any questions being asked.

Unfortunately, a getting a permit for the current day in the afternoon kind of precludes making a major ascent that day. Even getting one at 8 AM when they open means you can't start you hike until about 9 AM.

RP, sounds good. I'll let you know when I'm heading into the W-Zone. RG

Cool! Looking forward to it. It's always fun watching you fade from view in front of me.

I also hope you'll have the time to section day hike some of the JMT this summer (like we've talked about the past couple of years).

I doubt that. I think that Ninja bike has had a *bad* influence on you

Yep, first I've got to get my Sierra mileage up a bit to be able to handle those burly hikes

Where does the F.S. draw the line. If one can get two - single day permits, why not three, four or five - single day permits?

If allowed, one would essentially be taking a permit away from someone who shows up (on your second day) requesting a single day permit.

There are a lot of people who would prefer to car camp, or stay in a motel, rather than camp in the Whitney Zone.

And, there's a lot more to climb in the Whitney Zone than Whitney.

So, someone tries to plan multiple days of climbing, where they want to do day climbs of Mallory and Irvine from Arc Pass, Marsh, Muir, Thor, Russell, etc. Under the current rules explained by Rick, you would not be able to do this. Ridiculous!

Something should be done about it. My personal opinion is that there should be a North Fork Day Climb Quota that is separate from the Main Trail Quota. And if you want to exit via the Main Trail after climbing the Mountaineer's Route, you fall under the Trail Crest Exit Quota rules. (The explanation that I've heard for why NF Day Use permits were combined is that too many people exit the MR via the Main Trail.)

Write the rule so that if you don't want to allow for multiple day use permits, you can alternate between a Main Trail permit one day and a NF permit the next, etc.)

Yes but technically you couldn't camp which means that you couldn't really sleep. Tiring trip.

Although turang mentioned that he got back-2-back day permits last year, currently it appears that the F.S. draws the line at b-2-b day permits; evidently to prevent someone from using b-2-b day permits for an overnight trip.

But I understand that the F.S. is OK with issuing day permits on alternate days (eg, Monday, Wed, etc……). So if available, you could theoretically get a day permit every other day as long as you could stand it……or until they run out of wag bags

> Although turang mentioned that he got back-2-back day permits
> last year, currently it appears that the F.S. draws the line at
> b-2-b day permits; evidently to prevent someone from using b-2-b
> day permits for an overnight trip.

Not quite. He got one for the current day AND the next day. You could walk in every other day at 2 PM, and if there were still permits available for the current day AND permits for the next, you could pick up both. You could do that as long as the permits were available AND your body held up.

Or, you could walk in every day at 2 PM, and pick up a next day permit. Then head up and start hiking at midnight, be back in time for the next 2 PM line-up.

Both scenarios are silly, but there is no rule against continuing to get the next-day dayhike permits like that all summer long.

What their rules don't accommodate is picking up day-hike permits in advance of the day before the hike.   edit: ....and I missed the fact that turang picked up his reserved dayhike permit TWO days before his hike. That is the unusual part.

Also, turang, I have seen rules against using back-to-back dayhike permits to camp.

Well, since we already had a permit for the 8th, our permits for the 6th and 7th would have allowed us to be in the zone the night of the 6th and 7th. I was not and am not aware of any rules against camping with a set of day hike permits.

What we actually did was to get familiar on the 6th with the initial part of the route in daylight, since we were planning to start early and do that part in the dark. We got up at our normal time on the 7th and just had a relaxed stroll to acclimate and enjoy the scenery. All in all, a satisfactory investment of time and leg muscles.

-SteveC, thanks for the clarification. The permit system looks like an opportunity for some Enron type day traders

- Turang, interesting overnight scenario. But I’d think it bit awkward if a ranger was inspecting a camp site or encountered someone carrying a fully Moose-loaded backpack and the folks just offered a day permit.

That depends on what a day hike permit entitles a holder to do. For example, can you leave at 5AM on a day you have the permit, get to trail camp sometime in the morning, set up camp, snooze during the afternoon and return before midnight? Is there a time after which you are not supposed to be camped if you have a day permit?