I have 2 permits for an overnight trip on July 24/25 and am looking to add a third. First, what are the odds of this happening?..and secondly what is the best strategy to go about obtaining another one?
Steve will no doubt point you to this table, http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthreads.php/topics/3436#Post3436, which suggests that the odds of getting a permit through a walk-in on Sunday morning are very high (13 unused permits on both the second to last, and the last, Sundays in July 2010). Basically, they will run a minilottery at 10 a.m. on that Sunday in the permit office, and if there are more permits than people who want them, everyone wins (I got a permit that way for an overnight on a Friday in mid-July last year). Your standing in the walk-in lottery is NOT based on how early you get to the office that morning, but based on a number that you draw out of a hat, so you don't have to get there really early and camp out ... you can get there at 9:30 a.m. or so. But you will want to be calling up the permit office for a week or so before your date to see if you get snap up a cancellation before then.
