I will be in the Whitney area this weekend and want to give a shot at climbing it.
Just wondering, what are the chances at this time of the season to get permit?
Any suggestions, anyone?

Just walk into the Visitor Center and ask for a no-show permit. This late in the season, there should be enough to go around. Checking last year's unused permits numbers, it looks like in September, all the Saturdays are in high demand. So if you are going for this Saturday, you need to be there on Friday at 2 PM to try to get a permit.

Also, watch the online reservation site. There are currently two day hike slots for Friday.

Great! I will certainly do that. Thanks so much!

I got a walk in for this last Thursday. There were about 18 people waiting for walk-ups, the employee working the desk told us we were all good as there were 45 unused permits available.

Opportunities abound, weekends will be tougher, but not an awful chance.