Hi folks. My permit for the Whitney main trail for June 3 was cancelled. A buddy and I drove up from SoCal (4 hrs) to Lone Pine on Tuesday June 9. We went to the gear shop Elevation in town for a quick visit to check on the local haps. The guy in the shop said business was picking up and nobody that he knew of had summited Whitney yet. He did say that someone had left early that morning from the lower locked gate with the intent of day hiking the main trail. I do not know the result of that hike but I suggest calling the shop to see what anyone knows.
We decided to climb Baxter Pass, just to the north of Lone Pine, as a day hike on Wednesday June 10. This is the last of the four "nasty passes" I wanted to climb, see http://cholla.mmto.org/hiking/sierras/trips/nasty.html We camped at the trail head at about 6k and it actually got chilly there during the night. We left the trail head at 6 am and summited the pass around 5 hrs later. The last section is very steep climbing 1000' in about .7 miles!! We only encountered snow right at the top at about 12,290'. There are also a couple of gnarly stream/creek crossing that you have to negotiate in the first 3 miles so beware.
We saw only one other person that day, I don't think this trail gets much use at all. Here's my Strava link for a GPX file if anyone is so inclined to hike this pass as there are some areas where the trail is very indistinct: https://www.strava.com/activities/3595219602
Lone Pine is very quiet but there are restaurants open for dining-in or take out. 395 is also very quiet with driving made very easy...maybe it will be getting busier in the future with more businesses opening up.