Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion interesting thread on the north fork

A little history.

The overnight quota for private climbs up the North Fork used to be more generous, at least 15 and perhaps as high as 25. Activities of the guide companies, however, are controlled out of the Lee Vining Inyo National Forest office, and are entirely separate and additional. Guided trips had a maximum party size of 12. I don't know how many guided trips per day were allowed.

About ten years ago, someone in the INF offices thought too much resource damage was occurring. They developed a plan to reduce the guided quota significantly, but leave the private quota unchanged. When the plan reached the adjudication level, the person in charge listened to the arguments and concluded "I don't think you guys have a clue about what is going on up there. Go back and do a credible study, and return to me with some recommendations that can be backed up with data and analysis. In the meantime, to make sure the terrain is protected, I am arbitrarily reducing the private daily quota to ten." I'm not positive about what was done about the guided quota, but I believe it was left intact.

In fact, it was a good friend of mine--an INF ranger in Lee Vining, now retired--who used to be in charge of managing the guide and pack companies. He was the one who told me this story.

Nothing has changed since. The daily quota for private trips is still at ten, and the guided quota is whatever it is.

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Day climbs. As many know, there used to be no quota for day climbs, and no permit required. People could even go up the Mountaineer's Route and down the Main Trail in a day without a permit. Then it was decided that if someone walking on the MT from the Portal to the summit needed a day permit, they could require someone walking in the opposite direction to have one, too. They instigated the policy of requiring day climbers going up the MR and down the MT to have a permit, thus competing with the regular MT crowd.

Then they realized that "a wilderness permit is for entering on a specific day at a specific trailhead," and people stepping foot on the MT at the summit were not entering a trailhead. So the regulations did not allow them to require a permit for this situation. Furthermore, the summit is in SEKI National Park, so if any permit was to be issued, it was SEKI's job, not Inyo's.

They got around it last year by extending the daily quota for entering the MT to also include the MR--which is Inyo's prerogative--thus creating the anguish that we now all feel. This policy has been under review since the beginning, and I was surprised when it was not changed for 2010. I suspect it will be changed in the near future.

This is probably more than you wanted to know.