The Whitney Lottery

Looking at Mount Whitney early to mid September. Anyone had any experience with the mountain specifically that time of year? Also please lend your experiences as far as getting a permit as I didnot play the Lotterey. Thanks in advance.

No first hand experience but I have been reading up on it, as I have plans to be on the last segment of the John Muir trail next month (I have a permit to exit at Whitney portal). Like Rainier guided trips, it fills up early in the year but people's plans change and cancellations are common. I would check the numbers here and by Johnny on the spot if/when an opening occurs.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5186350.pdf
Good Luck.

I climbed - and by climbed, I mean hiked - Mount Whitney in late September 2009. I had a three day permit that I obtained via the lottery early in the year. Obviously, the lottery for this year is done, but you can still obtain permits for specific days if there are no-shows ... which is frequently the case on any given day. The permit system is divided into day and multi-day permits. IIRC, I had a blue-colored permit while the day-bangers had orange permits. Anyway, the HQ for the Eastern Sierra is about a mile south of Lone Pine on I-395 and if folks don't pick up permits by a certain hour the day before the start of their hike, it's up for grabs. For all things Mount Whitney, check out the Mount Whitney Portal Store Message Board

And if you make it out there, have a blast!!! It's an incredible mountain.

We day hiked Whitney in early September from Whitney Portal. Not a bad day hike, if you acclimatize in advance. Trail was free of snow and ice. A brief squall came through while we were on the switchbacks, and put down about 1/2 inch of snow, but it melted quickly - it was mostly a blue sky day.

We started nice and early (about 4 AM with headlamps) and easily finished in daylight. The biggest challenge was finding the start of the trail by headlamp. There's all kinds of big, bright signage at WP, but the actual trailhead is marked by a little dark brown on dark brown sign; I walked around the parking lots for about ten minutes before I finally found it. The trail itself is well marked and heavily "manufactured," no problem to follow once you are on it. There are only a couple junctions and they are well signed.

We used the lottery and had our day permit well in advance, so I can't comment on how likely you are to get a permit.

So my advice would be to acclimatize for a few days; get to WP at least once in daylight prior to your hike; and stop by the Lone Pine Ranger station and ask the Rangers about the chances of getting a permit.

Have fun!

The process of getting a walkin permit is somewhat convoluted. Im sure Kevin can answer your question better than I but I'll give is a shot because I just went through it.

Between May 1st and Nov 1st there is a maximum amount of people (quota) that are allowed in the Whitney Zone (which includes Mt Muir, Whitney and Russell)

During this quota period 100 day hikers and 60 overnight hikers are allowed in the Whitney Zone daily.

There are 2 ways to obtain a permit during the quota period. (Non quota period you can get a self issued permit outside the visitors center.)
1. Try the lottery
2. Walkin at the Lone Pine Visitors Center

All lottery winners must pick up their permits at the Lone Pine Visitors Center by noon the day before their hiking date. By 2:00pm the FS knows how many permits have been issued for day and overnight use for the next day. If you go to the visitor center after 2:00pm they will issue you a walkin permit for any lottery winners that did not pick up their permits by noon.

Now lets say you check the calendar of dates for day use of Whitney Zone and find that Sat. Sept. 3rd is not full because either the lottery did not get 100 applications or there were cancellations. If you go to the Visitors Center after 11:00am the day before they will issue you a permit for the 3rd.
Lets say when you show up at 11:00am there are 20 other people that have shown up trying for those 3 permit. If this happens they will hold a lottery by picking numbers out of a hat. Lowest number gets first choose. If you happen to pick #1 and there are 3 people in your team than everyone else is SOL.

All walkin permits issued are free.

Bottom line: show up at the visitors center at 11:00am and ask if any permits are available. If not, show up at 2:00pm and ask again. If you strike out show up the next day and try again. You shouldn't have any problem in Sept.

I got lucky this year in July due to a high snow year. There were a lot of cancellations.
My first walkin was on Sunday at 2:00pm and there were 9 permit available for Monday. The second time I tried at 11:00am and there were 6 permits available for 15 people that were waiting there. They held a lottery and I picked #2.

I did the one day deal to avoid the lottery. Great place, great fun.

When we climbed Mt. Whitney for a July trip, we tried for a permit in the lottery but didn't manage to get one. We went anyway, thinking we'd try it as a day hike if we had to.... but we had no trouble getting a permit the day before. I'm not positive our experience is common, but kind of suspect it is, given that people are reserving permits so far in advance of their trips. There were a ton of permits that weren't picked up -- I remember counting at the time and I saw about half as many overnighters as there were available permits.

Just stay flexible with your plans, I got a permit at 4:20 in the afternoon, only requirement I had to start hiking that day, and make it to a legal campsite.
Give yourself a window of a few days and you should be fine.

Thanks.....awesome info everyone. You guys should run their website as you have all explained the process better than anything I found online. This is a return trip for me as I was there twenty years ago and the process has become alot more convoluted since then. Therefore all the clarification here is much appreciated!!!!I wish there was a way to give a group greenie on this thread

100 people? Regulation gone overboard!

I'm very familiar with the process as I try to do Whitney a couple of times a year, including mid-September. Can't add much to the good info you've been given, so will emphasis this:

1) Even if you're doing it as a dayhike, allow about 3 days for the hike itself just in case you can't get a walk-in permit. Try to avoid Thurs, Fri & Sat.

2) Permits are released at 10 and again at 2 as a result of no-shows. If you can't get a day pass, ask if an overnight is available.

3) If you aren't used to altitude, consider spending a couple of days at nearby Horseshoe Meadows. Plenty of camping, and it's at 10K'.

4) If you wait too late in September, you may get some early snows, so consider packing microspikes/crampons.

5) If you have extra time after Whitney, consider doing White Mtn, another 14'er, from the Bristlecone Pine NF. Give yourself about 3 hours driving time from Big Pine, as some of the road is rough. Don't need 4x4, but the rocks are sharp so you should go slowly once off pavement.

6) The last open water is at Trail Camp. Usually there's some water flowing at about switchback 30, but in September it might be frozen in the early AM, but available in the afternoon on your return.

Enjoy your hike. When you hit the Sierra Crest, be prepared for some eye candy to the west.

Wow, have things ever changed. When we did Whitney in the 90's, just showed up and started hiking, camping along the way.
The advice of Kevin and others about acclimitizing is right on the mark. We spent a week camping in Tuolomne Meadows, camping and hiking at elevation, and then camped up in the Bristlecones and did a tune up hike up White Mt.

If you're that close, the Bristlecone groves are the closest thing to a cathedral in the mountains. The drive thru the Bristlecones along to the White Mt trailhead is 20 - 25 miles of above treeline driving - spectacular all by itself. I might have read that White Mt Peak is the highest desert mountain in North America.

I can't seem to find it, but there is a website somewhere that shows you how many permits went unused each day (even after people showed up day-of to try to get a permit). Almost every day during 2009 or 2010 there was a day-hiking permit leftover. Overnighters were harder to come by, but there were some of those leftover as well.

roadtripper said:

I can't seem to find it, but there is a website somewhere that shows you how many permits went unused each day (even after people showed up day-of to try to get a permit). Almost every day during 2009 or 2010 there was a day-hiking permit leftover. Overnighters were harder to come by, but there were some of those leftover as well.

Click to expand...

This is a good starting point.

Everything reported so far in these posts is "right on". Our group (3) applied early for an overnight permit but didn't get one, so we just showed up the day before our hike and got the orange day tag, as mentioned.

A good acclimatize suggestion: do the Boundary Peak (NV) high point before heading over for Whitney. It worked well for us.

FYI camp at Consultation Lake. Approximately 7,654 times nicer than the two camps that everybody else stays at.

Also make sure you get a gigantic pancake at the trailhead from the store. And do the short hike to the arch in the Alabama Hills either before or after.

If you want more suggestions, let me know =).

Here's a bit of news which may impact you if you're hiking in the Sierra, particularly Whitney, later this summer -

"InterAgency Visitor Center – Open daily 8-4:30. Wilderness Permits will no longer be available for pick-up between 4:30 and 6 pm
Wilderness permits are still required for all over-night backpacking trips into the Hoover, Ansel Adams, John Muir and Golden Trout Wildernesses, and for all over-night and day-use trips into the Mt. Whitney Zone. The only issuance change is the availability of permits at the visitor centers as outlined above. Because this does reflect a significant change in available hours for picking up permits, all wilderness users are asked to plan ahead to pick up their permits by closing time, or plan for early the next morning."