I received this report:
There are no functional changes to the lottery -- it will work the same as last year.
A few minor things though: Email notifications of lottery results from the recreation.gov website apparently did not get out to everyone, so they are stressing this year that you should login after the lottery has been run to see your results.
They are trying to update some of the text on the rec.gov site to make things easier to read.
They hope to update the Inyo National Forest's
lottery information page on a weekly basis throughout the lottery entry phase.
2014 Mt Whitney Lottery TimelineFeb 1, 2014 to March 15, 2014 Applications are entered online at
www.recreation.gov (closes on March 15 at midnight Eastern time)
March 16 All the lottery applications are processed in a random lottery. New applications not accepted until April 1.
March 23 Results available on line, check your account.
April 1 All remaining space is released for web reservations
Online opens at 7 am Pacific time- No phone reservations
Acceptance period opens for 30 days.
April 30 Last day to accept and pay for lottery reservations.
(closes at midnight Eastern time)
May 1 All unclaimed dates are canceled and released for web reservations (within 24 hours, at random times).
Edit:
March 26 update2014 Mt Whitney Lottery Update
April 1, at 7 AM Pacific time All remaining space becomes available for online web reservations
No phone reservations
Acceptance period opens for 30 days -- winners can login and pay the $15 per hiker fee
for the reservations.
NOTE: During April, lottery winners who have not already cancelled their slots may login
and release their reservations. Those slots become available within 24 hours at random
times. Inyo reports that last year, 30% of lottery slots were cancelled by May 1.
April 30 Last day to accept and pay for lottery reservations.
(closes at midnight Eastern time)
Note: Last year there were many spaces that went unclaimed.
May 1 Throughout the day, all unclaimed spaces become available at random times.