Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Changing Dates for Whitney

I am hoping people have some advice on possibly switching my climb date. I have a permit for late August, but my wife just found out that her best friend is getting married the same weekend (husband is in the military and had to work around deployments so short notice). Is there a way to switch with someone else? How would I do that?

Thanks.

Matt, sorry your calendar got changed. Life is like that, isn't it. First, what do you have... what date, and Day Hike or Overnight???

Unfortunately, it would be pretty difficult, if not impossible to switch permits with someone. Finding someone willing to swap for your date would be tough, and then it isn't really permitted by Inyo N.F. (I suppose if you asked nicely, they might agree to allow you to add the other party leader as an alternate leader on your permit, and vice versa on theirs -- because only the original leader or an alternate leader is allowed to pick up a permit.)

Your other option is to release your unusable reservation to the system, and then to study the Unused Whitney Permits pages, and find a time when there are usually permits available. Then, go for a walk-in permit (they're free). When you check the unused permits, notice how many were available, especially Mondays and Tuesdays. Even those numbers are low a few weeks in August, but if you can find time to go on those weekdays, you are pretty much assured of getting a permit. (I always point people to the week following July 4. Seems to always be spots available.)

And a last possibility: Set your browser's "home" page to hit recreation.gov for your target dates, so every time you go to the internet, you can glance at what is available. If someone releases their permits, you can reserve them. Here are the links and URL code to use. Adjust the dates to what you need:

Day Hikes:  http://www.recreation.gov/permits//r/entranceDetails.do?arvdate=07/01/2012&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72201&entranceId=315840&pGroupSize=1

Overnights: http://www.recreation.gov/permits//r/entranceDetails.do?arvdate=07/01/2012&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72201&entranceId=315790&pGroupSize=1

Good luck!

Thanks for the quick reply! I was hoping for a helpful response, but not quite that fast.

Our permit is for a day hike on August 26 for 4 people. I was looking at the website again and it does appear that there are permits available for October, so that may work although then weather and daylight become issues, right? I'll keep checking to see whether any other dates pop up.

Thanks again.

Available dates due to people cancelling their reservations are most likely to show up in the last week or two before the hike date.