Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Re: Lottery Processing Progress

When I was making suggestions to Brian last summer regarding the NF Permit issue, one of the things that he mentioned was that the FS would make "administrative permits" available to SAR organizations, such as CLMRG, for training missions. I'd have a conversation with him about it. You may not have to go thru the hassle of walk-in permits for a large group.

Quick question about the entry date...

I would prefer to take two nights on the trip, as opposed to the others on my permit that may want to do the climb in one night. Is it legal for me to hike to Outpost Camp (permit is in my name), spend the night, then hike down to Lone Pine Lake to meet up with them since they don't need a permit to hike that far up the trail?

I would call the permit office, but figure they are most likely still swamped.

s_kavert, the problem is that a permit is for entry on a specific date. To use your permit, they must enter on that same day and camp. To enter a day later would require a different permit. Once you enter the wilderness, there is no problem if you decide to stay an extra day. But it doesn't work the other way around. Isn't bureaucracy fun?

I suppose if they came in a day later, and they were not checked until Outpost, it would appear as if they had camped. But I'd guess that technically it is not legal.

We know about this, have made full use of it, and are very thankful for it. A good thing for the rest of you is that these do not impact the quotas. A drawback for us is that we cannot take guests along, so up and coming people who are not yet members are excluded.

A benefit to Inyo is that we take radios along, so can function as an "already inserted" advance team, in case something comes up.

The requests we make through the regular channel are for groups of four for overnights; sometimes as large as six for day climbs. And, as I said, we got none of those this year.

Thanks Steve. That's what I thought would be the case. What if we both hike in on the entry day, but I hike in earlier than the rest of the group and then meet them on the trail before they enter to permit-only boundary?

Each member on the permit receives a tag to attach to their packs. Just because you are the leader on the permit doesn't mean you have to be with the other members of your group.

There is only one "permit sheet" per group. Are you saying that you will be arriving at Lone Pine before the rest of your group? As long as you all enter the wilderness on the same day, I assume there would be no problem. You would have to do a little explaning to the ranger at the Visitors Center when you picked up your permit (but people come late all the time). As noted earlier, there are also tags issued at the Visitors Center to identify the members of your group.

I got my Rejection letter last Friday, since I dont have enough vacation time to take off mid week this year to try to snag a permit, Mt. Whitney will have to remain a dream for another year

Well after reading about all the successes and failures here I was a little concerned that I hadn't heard anything yet. But yesterday's mail included a nice letter so I got my #4 choice, July 19 for a one-day hike. That makes eight consecutive years of getting a permit for me. I'll be happy to share a beer with some or all of you at the Store when I get back down that evening!