Hi, I'm planning for a 3 or 4-day overnight trip somewhere between Aug 10-19. I've heard the whole month is completely booked. So i was wondering the odds for a walk-in permit?

Tough to say. Probably not as good as they were in the beginning of July when everyone was still worried about snow on the trail. But so far, I'm two for two on walk in permits, including four overnight permits for a day before we had day permits from the lottery.

There's a shot, for sure, but you'll want to make sure you're the first one there asking at 11am when they open them up.

Also, the amount of days that you want to stay up there is not important. The important thing is the day you want to enter. If you have a two or three day window of days that you can enter, your chances go up exponentially, because you have more days to give it a shot at the visitors center.

During my time hiking in the Whitney area last week, I learned something that I did not previously know (perhaps I should have known and had somehow missed this all along). In particular, when you ask for an overnight permit within the Whitney Zone, you must specify which trail (MT or MR) you want it for, and per the ranger I spoke with at the visitor center, once you have obtained an overnight permit for your chosen trail, you are not allowed to use it on the other trail for which you do not have the permit. Again, perhaps I've been in the dark on this one for a long time (probably because I prefer dayhikes most of the time), and maybe everyone else already knows about this; but I found it odd that a backpack permit would not allow you to backpack wherever you want in the Whitney Zone.

Of course, as always, dayhike permits for the Whitney Zone are good for anywhere in the Whitney Zone (MT or MR, etc.).

CaT

StickWithIt, here's a link to the Unused Whitney Permits for last year. Gives you an idea of which days and weeks are most likely to have permits available.

The numbers are what was left AFTER everyone who came in got what they wanted. Your chances at 11 a.m. each day are better.

CaT:

For as long as I can remember, each trail has always had its own quota of how many people can enter per day. Overnight wilderness permits always specify the trail and the entry date. To be legal, you must enter the wilderness using the specified trail on the specified date. Once you have legally entered the wilderness, you can go pretty much anywhere you like.

Bob,

I'm guessing it's probably a matter of semantics. Perhaps when the ranger said that the overnight permit could only be issued for a particular trail, he meant what you said about it referring only to the TH entry point. However, I probably assumed that he meant not only the TH entry point, but the entire trail as well. I don't recall my conversation with him clearly enough to remember whether this distinction was ever discussed (I'm not sure it was). He just said that I could get an overnight permit either for one trail or the other. I probably drew my own more-restrictive conclusion as what he meant by that, which it seems was incorrect. Thanks for the clarification.

CaT

Adding to the confusion here, the DAY hike permits are good for both the main trail and the mountaineers route. So it is not surprising that people get mixed up.

Inyo staff has told me they plan to separate the two areas in the future so the MR has its own day hike permit quota that is separate from the Main Trail.

...Of course, I wonder how the Trail Crest Exit Permit will affect the process.

Are we all confused yet?

- - - -

In CaT's situation, he was using the overnight permit to set up a base camp, and then planned on making various day hikes from that point. I am wondering.... if he camped at Lone Pine Lake on the wilderness permit, would he then be authorized to descend the trail to the North Fork, and then hike up the MR???

My head is dizzy -- and I haven't even taken any Diamox!

If separating the MT and the MR is true, and if the quotas are to be separate for each trail, then that will get things back to the way they were prior to having one quota for the entire zone, which will probably be better.

Of course, add the new computerized lottery next year to what you said above, and it should be an interesting year.

CaT

...and the same outfit that runs the Half Dome permits will be running the Whitney permit lottery.

Definitely interesting.

Hmmmm....

..... should be very interesting, then.

Wow, thanks for the fast response guys! I will probably try to snag a walk-in permit if I can.
But, its about a 6 hour drive, and if I can't get one, I won't appreciate the ride back . So what are other good trails to take?

- Horseshoe Meadow into the Cottonwood Lakes area.
- Onion Valley trailhead up to Kearsarge Pass and then down to the Bullfrog and Vidette Lakes area.

CaT

Cat,
Semantics is the key word here. The root of the problem is the fact that no matter what the Forest Service does, there will always be "loopholes" as thousands of people come up with different scenarios that test the limits. As more people take advantage of loopholes, more restrictions are applied to close the loopholes.

As for your question on different overnight permits for different routes, it has been that way as far back as I can remember. The overnight entry quotas are applied at the trail head (however that is defined by the Forest Service). The confusion arose when the day hike quotas were added to the main trail, and even more confusion came when they added the North Fork/MR to the day hike quota several years ago under the new title of "Mt. Whitney Zone."

So why did we get the Mt. Whitney Zone quota? Answer: Too many day hikers were using the North Fork to go up and return on the main trail without a permit. In other words, it was to close a loophole.