Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Camping at Lone Pine Lake

I would like to camp at Lone Pine Lake next summer for a few days, to do some climbing up on Candlelight and Thor peak.

Since I will not be entering the "Whitney Zone" do I have to go through the lottery system to get a Whitney trail permit....or can I send for it 6 months in advance, like other permits. Any ideas? I am not sure I like the idea of competing with people who are backpacking up the regular Whitney trail, taking a permit away from someone going for the first time.

Last time I was at the forest service, they talked as though starting trail was all that mattered, not what you did or where you went after you were on your way up the trail.

Thanks for any help.

Harold,

Here's some information you will find usefull. Even though Lone Pine Lake is not in the "Whitney Zone" you would still need a wilderness permit to camp overnight since the lake is within the John Muir Wilderness. This permit would be suject to the trail quota for the Main Mt Whitney Trail, the same trail hikers use to summit Mt Whitney. A bear canister would be required as well and wood fires are prohibited. I beleive the confusion with this situation occurs because people doing a day hike to Lone Pine Lake do not need a permit where as they would if they were to hike further and enter the "Whitney Zone". Your permit would also cover you for climbing Thor Pk from Mirror Lake which lies in the "Whitney Zone". I hope this info helps you with planning your trip.

blaze_whitney sounds correct. When I started visiting the Whitney area they didn't allow camping at Lone Pine lake. Sometime recently that has changed. When I was there in August you could see campsite spots.

The forest service doesn't care so much about what peak you are interested in once you get in the wilderness. The permits cover entry trails only and Lone Pine lake would be on the regular Mt. Whitney trail.

There are trade offs. If you camp at Lone Pine lake you have to carry up all your overnight gear. An alternative option would be to camp at the portal and do two day hikes back to back. It would only be an extra 90 minutes or so to hike up the trail to Lone Pine lake. That way you could skip the permits all together (since you could climb up the south east chute to Thor peak before you enter the Whitney zone)

Blaze sounds correct to me too. Since the trailhead is the controling factor. However, I do know the the forest service will special dispensation for the use of bear resistant canisters for hikers coming in from the west if they go directly to Whitney Portal and not camp for Trail Crest east.

Bill.

Sorry to resurrect this topic, but I ran into a group this last weekend, and they said that they spent their first night on the mountain at Lone Pine Lake. I was under the impression that camping at Lone Pine Lake, permits or not, was not allowed...

The trip leader of this group said that INF rangers encouraged their idea of camping at LPL since "Outpost Camp is overcrowded and overused".

Does this make sense, or was their person giving me a line so I didn't report them to INF?

I camped legally at Lone Pine Lake last Friday night. There were at least 4 other parties there as well.

I was able to obtain an overnight walk in permit for Whitney that day. There were 32 openings for Friday but none for Saturday and Sunday. I didn't want to summit until Sunday but my permit required me to enter the wilderness on Friday. So I decided to take a leisurely two days up the mountain. We spent the first night at LPL and the second at Trail Camp. I ran my plan past the person who issued my permit and he said it was no problem.

I've been to LPL many times and never seen anyone camping there. I thought we would have the place to ourselves so I was surprised to see so many people. Good level tent sites are somewhat limited. I was glad my tent had a small footprint.

It really was a beautiful place to camp and I plan to return this winter, outside the quota period.

As we were eating breakfast around 9:00, a guy walked up and asked us to take our tent down because it was interfering with his picture!!!! LOL!!!!