Mt Whitney Permit Questions

I have some confusion after reading about how to get a permit on Whitney. Is the only option to get into the lottery or are there any overnight permits that are walk up? Are there walk up permits for non overnight? Are they still super competitive during the week if there are walk ups? Thanks!

There are no walk up permits, period, throughout the eastside. It's now all on recreation.gov. What would previously be reserved for walk-up is now available the Monday before on recreation.gov. Log on on Monday around 10am and refresh till the permits you're interested in become available.

Also, remember that there's the Whitney Trail permit and the N. Fork Lone Pine Creek Permit (which is where most of the actual climbing routes are). In both cases you're looking for cancellations at this point. 

It appears that the only permits available are “Overnight/ Whitney Trail” or “Day/ All Routes” 

There does not seem to be an option for an overnight permit for North Fork Lone Pine Creek.. 

The Recreation.gov option has been fairly painless and I’ve scored permits twice this season with 7+ days lead time. You will generally need to be a bit flexible on your dates..  I have not logged in at precisely 10am Monday, so I may be missing permits. 

Quinn Hatfield wrote:

It appears that the only permits available are “Overnight/ Whitney Trail” or “Day/ All Routes” 

There does not seem to be an option for an overnight permit for North Fork Lone Pine Creek.. 

The Recreation.gov option has been fairly painless and I’ve scored permits twice this season with 7+ days lead time. You will generally need to be a bit flexible on your dates..  I have not logged in at precisely 10am Monday, so I may be missing permits. 

You're looking at the wrong page. Don't go to the "Mt. Whitney" page. That's only for the main trail.  You need to go to the general page for Inyo National Forest Wilderness Permits to find NFLP. I know, doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

Andrew Rice wrote:

You're looking at the wrong page. Don't go to the "Mt. Whitney" page. That's only for the main trail.  You need to go to the general page for Inyo National Forest Wilderness Permits to find NFLP. I know, doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?

OMFG!

I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure that out on my own! 

Thank you very much!

No overnight permits for NFLP at the moment.. I scored a 1 day for next Thursday yesterday.. 

Piggybacking on this thread. Does anyone know of a place to get wag bags in lone pine with the lone pine ranger station being closed? Are there wag bags at the trailhead or the grocery store? I'll probably get into town after the gear shop closes.

marko j wrote:

Piggybacking on this thread. Does anyone know of a place to get wag bags in lone pine with the lone pine ranger station being closed? Are there wag bags at the trailhead or the grocery store? I'll probably get into town after the gear shop closes.

We were there July 17th and wag bags were provided at the trailhead 

marko j wrote:

Piggybacking on this thread. Does anyone know of a place to get wag bags in lone pine with the lone pine ranger station being closed? Are there wag bags at the trailhead or the grocery store? I'll probably get into town after the gear shop closes.

There's a wag bag dispenser at the main trailhead. Right by where the signage is and where that scale is. You can also usually get some at the "Night Kiosk" down at the Interagency center.

marko j wrote:

Piggybacking on this thread. Does anyone know of a place to get wag bags in lone pine with the lone pine ranger station being closed? Are there wag bags at the trailhead or the grocery store? I'll probably get into town after the gear shop closes.

Elevation gear store in Lone Pine also provides them complimentary (very nice of them).

nathanael wrote:

There are no walk up permits, period, throughout the eastside. It's now all on recreation.gov. What would previously be reserved for walk-up is now available the Monday before on recreation.gov. Log on on Monday around 10am and refresh till the permits you're interested in become available.

So, on Rec.gov, depending on the trailhead, for a certain day it will either show the number of remaining available permits, or will show a " W" for walk in, or it will just be blank.

On Monday mornings, will all available walk in permits show as a number for the upcoming week?

I guess it doesn't make sense that some dates later this week are blank? Shouldn't they be "W" until they get taken after the release of the walk in permits on Monday morning?

It is somewhat confusing and the Inyo wilderness page doesn't explain this very well, they say to call the wilderness office.

I figured I'd ask here first before bothering a busy wilderness office.

splitclimber wrote: So, on Rec.gov, depending on the trailhead, for a certain day it will either show the number of remaining available permits, or will show a " W" for walk in, or it will just be blank. On Monday mornings, will all available walk in permits show as a number for the upcoming week? I guess it doesn't make since that some dates later this week are blank? Shouldn't they be "W" until they get taken after the release of the walk in permits on Monday morning? It is somewhat confusing and the Inyo wilderness page doesn't explain this very well, they say to call the wilderness office. I figured I'd ask here first before bothering a busy wilderness office.

I'm not sure the difference between a blank date vs a "W" date. It seems like there are many more trailheads/dates marked "W" now, vs a few weeks ago when I was booking my permits most days were either blank or had a number available. I'm guessing no difference real difference except for how they are entering things in the website.

thx Nathanael,

So I guess a follow up question is how do you actually book a W, assuming that means there are still available "walk in" permits to reserve on line that they make available each week. It doesn't let you click on the W. My guess is you don't have to call the office to reserve, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

splitclimber wrote: thx Nathanael, So I guess a follow up question is how do you actually book a W, assuming that means there are still available "walk in" permits to reserve on line that they make available each week. It doesn't let you click on the W. My guess is you don't have to call the office to reserve, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

I don't think you can book a W, I would treat it like a blank. If it's a quota trailhead then you need a reservation to open up online. I could, of course, be wrong. 

splitclimber wrote: thx Nathanael, So I guess a follow up question is how do you actually book a W, assuming that means there are still available "walk in" permits to reserve on line that they make available each week. It doesn't let you click on the W. My guess is you don't have to call the office to reserve, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

You book the W's online within the week prior to the date. They just release the 40% holdback (or whatever it is for that trail) starting the Monday morning of the week prior to the date. 

Just got a permit for the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek via the new "walk up" permit for 13 Aug.

Started refreshing recreation.gov at 7:00 today. Permits started showing up (Replacing the W's) around 8:20 and then at 9:15 permits for North Fork of Lone Pine went up. In about 10 seconds it went from "W" to 2 left for my date. About 15 minutes later (9:28) there are a few left for the week. Click fast everyone. Little Lakes Valley, which was a backup all went in a few seconds. I couldn't even snag one.

I just did the same thing as Andrew and got a permit for the 6th this week, seems like this is the best way to try to find yourself a permit!!

damn, that must have been quick, I've been refreshing the page but never noticed it change.

shouldn't all the W's change to a number for this week then?  As an example, right now for big pine creek north fork, there is a W for this Wednesday 8/5.  Should this have changed to a number.

sorry for the lame questions, it is hard to decipher.

splitclimber wrote:

damn, that must have been quick, I've been refreshing the page but never noticed it change.

shouldn't all the W's change to a number for this week then?  As an example, right now for big pine creek north fork, there is a W for this Wednesday 8/5.  Should this have changed to a number.

sorry for the lame questions, it is hard to decipher.

The W's seem to be very fluid. It's almost like there's someone manually updating each day and permit type. 

splitclimber wrote:

damn, that must have been quick, I've been refreshing the page but never noticed it change.

shouldn't all the W's change to a number for this week then?  As an example, right now for big pine creek north fork, there is a W for this Wednesday 8/5.  Should this have changed to a number.

sorry for the lame questions, it is hard to decipher.

I refreshed the page and it went from Ws to ~10 or so for each day. Then as people reserved them the numbers decreased until they greyed out.

Does anyone know the status on Day permits for North Fork of Lone Pine Creek (to access East Face/ East Buttress area of Mt. Whitney)?  Recreation.gov seems to only show overnights.

On another note, Recreation.gov also seems to be a microcosm of the failed state which was formally the US.