Well that would mean a few less people on the trail, as the no-shows don't get reallocated.
Exactly - sounds like a feature, not a bug.
Both the FS and parks are trying to manage the increased crowds everywhere throughout the range. Check out this reddit thread on revamped PCT permits:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTra...istance_permit/It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that if .gov incorporated the Whitney permit system for all other THs, the agencies would have an excellent means of saying "tough shit" without taking any personal heat.
I wonder what the net decrease in Whitney traffic was this summer? 50%? Steve has the cancellation/no-show data from prior years. There's no reason why that would have changed in abstract.
So, the historical basis of same day, last minute availability would now translate to that many people NOT hiking each day during 2019.
Clever, very, very clever.
PS USA population has doubled during the last 60 years since 1960. Increase in amount of available open space during same time period? Net increase in size/scope of the Sierra Nevada? (Trick question.)
Like any low tech organization, .gov simply uses a brute force method to penalize members of the newest generation(s) whose only crime was to be born too late. So, guess what eventually happens when people begin to wake up and realize they are being treated unfairly? You begin the long, slow process of debasing respect for the law as it is viewed as a tool of oppression, rather than a means of ensuring equality for all.
Slowly, but surely, the agencies need to accept that the entire range is on course to repeat the experience of what has happened in the Valley. So, the impetus is not to block, but to manage. Overuse prevention methods means keeping people on trails, it means having designated campgrounds (vs dispersed) in certain regions, and it means controlling/managing human waste.
