Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion What's up with my application?

Hi: I applied for a day use permit yesterday. I have a confirmation number, but didn't receive a confirmation email. Also when I signed in to Recreation.gov, to check there, there's no indication of my application.

Do these updates take time? Is there a phone number to a human that I can reach? I did send an email, but I have no idea if that will get answered, as they must receive many emails.

Thanks. K

Hey K,
I am guessing that what you received was an acknowledgment of your application submission. The permits are not issued until March, when the lottery takes place. For more details see:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/passes-permits/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5150055

Patience is required

Thanks John, I appreciate your reply. I have a confirmation number that showed up on my computer screen, that I happened to print, but there was no way for me to print it via the recreation.gov site. It was indicated that a confirmation email would be sent to me, but I didn't receive it. I ended up finding the phone number for recreation.gov, and spoke to someone there, who did see my reservation, but couldn't help me with the email confirmation since the Whitney Lottery is only on-line. She did give me a phone number that I can call tomorrow.

K

Hi K,

Oops, I misunderstood your question. I'm not aware of the rec.gov web site not working or losing reservation applications, but I understand the feeling of security when you get the "official" confirmation via e-mail. What date(s) did you apply for? I think you indicated in an earlier post that you were thinking about Sept. Normally there are fewer applications later in Sept. Also, if your party is not too large I guess you will get your permit. If not, check out some of the other links on this board for info on getting a permit after the lottery closes.

Generally speaking, with a bit of diligence, you can get your permit. Even if not, you can normally "show up" the day prior to your planned hike and get a permit due to last minute cancellations and no-shows. I know this would take a "leap of faith", coming from Montreal, but if you have a couple of week days to work with the odds are very high that you can get a walk in permit. Even if that failed there are alternative hikes very similar in profile to Whitney. Mt. Langley for instance.

John

Hi again John. I applied for weekdays during the 1st 3 weeks of September, for a party of 2. If we don't make the 1st cut, I'll maybe try in April or May to get a permit.

I could do the leap of faith method as according to the previous years of no shows, there seem to be places available. However, I'm not sure what the competition would be on the spot. I could have a total of 3 week days available. I was planning on an extra day anyways if the weather was bad.

I'm looking at doing the MR and that seems exciting and challenging, so I'm not sure other mountains will do it for me! I'm planning a road trip,which will be fun even without Whitney, but I would be disappointed if we didn't get the chance to try it.

If needed, I'd be interested in hearing how successful other people's leaps of faith were.

Btw, the link you provided gave me the same phone number that the Recreation.gov woman gave me.

K

KMC: Two possibilities: The Recreation.gov system is failing to actually send the email, or your email provider routed their email into your spam folder. Check for it there.

If you look at the Unused Whitney Permits, getting a walk-in (and free) permit midweek in September is not a "leap of faith" in any sense. Last year, nearly all dates had double-digit unused permits for those days. Look at the previous years. They are all similar. Plan your trip. Do NOT worry about a permit!!!

As for other people's leaps: I've never heard of it not working. It is pretty much a guarantee, because 95% of Whitney hikers don't visit this site and don't know how easy the permits are to get.

Thanks for your reply Steve. I checked my spam folder, but didn't find it there.

While there seem to be many unused permits in the list at the time we would be there, I was wondering if they were unused and open to walk-ins, and maybe there were more walk-ins than unused spaces; or if they were never used. I'll ask when I call later.

Even so, I'm pretty sure I can work 3 extra days into my trip and we decided we would go anyways, and try our luck.

K

kmc, those unused numbers are what is left AFTER all walk-ins were given permits. They are really, truly, the unused permits.

Thanks again Steve. Good to know about the unused permits. I just spoke to a ranger at Inyo and he told me that Recreation.gov isn't very good about sending confirmation emails and advised me to check my account towards the end of March.

K

For those of you interested, I did get a reply yesterday from Recreation.gov. Once you log in to your account, on the left hand side there's a link to "lottery applications", and the confirmation of application is there.

All's well that ends well, We're in!! Got our 2nd choice.

Congratulations! Did you get an email, or did you log on to recreation.gov and check?

Both. I checked the site this morning, and by the time I got back from work today there was an email notification for me.

K