Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion What permit is needed to do a 2-day on Mountaineers Rte?

I'm looking to go in a group of 8-9 people in August to do a 2-day hike on the Mountaineer's Route? What permits will I need? Lottery permit and/or overnight permit for North Fork of Lone Pine Creek trail? Thanks for any help.

It would be a North Fork Permit. If I'm not mistaken, the trail has a 15 permit limit, of which 40% are held back for walk ins. This means you would have to a "clean" day to reserve 8 or 9 permits.

Actually, the daily quota for overnight backpacks on the North Fork is 10, and only 6 are reservable. The other 4 come available to walk-in people at 11 AM the day before the hike. Here's the Inyo Quota page. North Fork is "J34"

You can get those 6 permits in February -- just be the first to log onto the Recreation.gov site on the 6-months-before your entry date. I think the permits become available at midnight Eastern Time (9 pm the night before, here), but not sure of that. You should try one of these evenings and see, as a practice run. Then on the night you need, be there clicking the "Update Availability" button, and be ready.

Here's the Recreation.gov link reserve North Fork J34 overnight permits.

Once you reserve the six available, you can get the others needed on the morning before your hike if you show up at the Interagency Visitor Center south of Lone Pine (where you would be picking up your reserved permits anyway). Be there at 11 AM, they hold a drawing to see who gets processed first. That applies to people picking up reserved permits as well as anyone trying for walk-in permits for next-day overnight hikes for all trails, so there would likely be a small crowd.

...will write more later....
edit: changed the online availability time.

continuing... If you want to be SURE you have all the permits you need right away, then all you can do is reserve 6 for the date you want, and reserve the rest to start the day before. A few in the group could go in early -- pick up their permits in the afternoon on the day they hike, and just hike up to Lower Boy Scout lake. Takes maybe 2-3 hours at most. They could spend the night there, then hang out and wait for the rest coming up the next day.

Just a note: If you pick up the permits same day as you start, you MUST call ahead and ask them to hold the permits, since otherwise they would give the permits away at 11 AM as no-shows. ...If you go this route, call a few days ahead and confirm this is the situation. You MIGHT be able to just confirm on-line at Recreation.gov (just not sure).

OR... if the several early-starters got there at 11 AM, and there were still some/all of those 4 walk-ins available for the next day, they could trade their reserved permits in for next-day walk-ins.

And last: Your 8-9 people is a large group. It is often the experience of people that members drop out at the last minute. If you got your six permits, that might be all you actually need in the end.

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As for the lottery: You only need enter the lottery if you want to dayhike Mt Whitney via the North Fork. The Main Trail dayhike lottery reservation also permits dayhiking the North Fork. Some people go up the North Fork and down the Main Trail in the same day. That single dayhike lottery permit is what they need.

For overnight backpack trips, the J34 permit is what you need. However, if you go up the North Fork as a backpacker, spending the night along the way, and THEN carry all your gear to the summit with the intent of descending the Main Trail, then in addition to the North Fork backpack permit, you ALSO need a Trail Crest Exit permit. (Most people really don't want to carry their overnight gear to the summit, but a few do this.)

The Exit permits are available online in advance. The trail is J36 on the quota page (15 reservable). To get BOTH the J34 and J36, you would go to Recreation.gov, and search for Inyo National Forest-Wilderness Permits, Permits & Wilderness, then click "Overnight Exiting Mt Whitney" then find "North Fork of Lone Pine Creek" Here's a link to a screen showing both: North Fork with Trail Crest Exit The Exit permits go fast, so you would need to get them AT the same time (People get the exit permits so they can hike from Onion Valley and Horseshoe Meadows, too.)

Thanks for the great info, Steve. As for your idea of some of the group going up a day earlier, are those people allowed to spend two nights on the mountain with the overnight permit? Are these people allowed to come off the mountain and hike back in the next day or is the overnight permit only good as long as you stay on the mountain?

Wilderness permits are good indefinitely as long as you don't stay more than 2 weeks in one place, and you don't spend over 24 hours OFF the trail (exiting the wilderness). Re-entry within 24 hours on a trail other than the one exited would require a new permit.

So within the rules above, yes, they could leave their gear at Lower Boy Scout and exit and re-enter if they wanted.

I have a similar question: if I were ending the JMT and didn't want to deal with the Whitney exit permit lottery, could I hike down the MR and avoid this? Or would I still need a permit for exiting Mt Whitney?

You only need an Exit Permit to go down the Main Trail. MR is ok without.

But if you are hiking the JMT, if you start in Yosemite (or anywhere else outside of an Inyo N.F. trail head), you do NOT need the exit permit at all. If you start in a National Park, or from another National Forest, all you need is the original trail head entry permit.