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 Timeline

Feb 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 update
Originally Posted By: Steve C
2014 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.