If you cannot pick up in person, you may request over phone or email - see Permit Pickup Instructions. The group leader signing the permit is accepting responsibility to ensure everyone in their group will follow the rules and regulations on the rules and regulations on the permit. Be alert when arriving at night.
There is a high level of bear activity at Whitney Portal. Do not leave food or refuse in your car or tent. Do not leave food or your pack unattended. There are no restrooms along the trail. Whitney visitors are expected to pack-out their solid human waste poop and paper.
Pack-out kits are provided with your permit. Dispose of pack-out kits in the waste disposal box located near the restrooms at Whitney Portal Trailhead. Help protect this natural resource and leave it unmarked for future visitors.
Familiarize yourself with the Leave No Trace principles and review wilderness rules with all group members. Safety Is No Accident!
Prepare for your trip by getting in shape. Come early to acclimate to the effects of high altitude. Stay together in case your friends need help. Entry Date is the day you will begin walking the trail. Exit Date is the day you will come off the trail. All people count for wilderness quotas and fees. Prices are not different for military, seniors or children. The reservation fees are used to finance the on-line reservation system.
The recreation fees are used to finance the on-the-ground wilderness programs in Inyo National Forest. Recreation fees cannot be transferred to alternate dates. No rain checks or credits. Reservations cannot be sold or transferred. It sounds long but is very doable with the proper training. Your chances for getting a permit on the day hike are also generally the best.
There are pros and cons to camping. Big on the pro side is that you can split the hike up into smaller chunks, you can acclimatize, and get a beautiful night under the stars.
On the con side, permits are tougher to get, and you have to haul a much heavier pack up the mountain. In fact for me, doing a longer day hike with a lighter pack is easier than carrying camping gear to Trail Camp, which might seem a little counterintuitive. The most popular place to camp is Trail Camp feet , 6 miles up the trail. All of these sites offer water and are first-come, first-serve. Instead of lugging all your gear to the summit, you can leave your main pack at the campsite and do the summit with a smaller daypack.
Make sure all your food and scented items like toothpaste are in the bear canister. Leave your backpack loosely packed and tent flaps open so that critters can easily look around. Also, secure your gear against rain and high winds. It happens. There are over a dozen routes to the summit that involve mountaineering, the most popular of which is the Class 3 Mountaineers Route which John Muir took to the summit. Leave these routes to those with climbing and mountaineering experience.
You want to stick to the Class 1 hikes like the Mt Whitney Trail , which can be done with hiking boots. Class 2 and above can require climbing experience and climbing gear. You also still need a permit for the Mountaineers Route.
So why do so many people get into trouble on this route? Poor planning, inadequate gear and clothing, weather, inexperience, altitude, bad judgment—the usual suspects. The hike is 72 miles, and requires a shuttle back to the start from Whitney Portal if going one way. SoCal hiker has great guides on the John Muir Trail. You can also look at a map and plan your own backpacking trip the includes Mt Whitney.
Maybe it will be on a section of the Pacific Crest Trail with a side trip to the summit, or maybe a point-to-point from Cottonwood Campground, the options are many.
The hike to Mt Whitney is popular. I mean really popular. Generally 70, to , hikers apply to hike or backpack to the summit from Whitney Portal between May and November. So the parks service enforces a quota system.
These quota-controlled slots are awarded in a lottery. Getting one of these slots will be your first challenge, and it starts months before the hike. The first thing you need to do is pick 16 dates that you would like to hike Mt Whitney on. The permit lottery lets you choose 1 main day, and 15 alternates. When picking a date, ideally you want a full moon in late July, August, or early September. These months are the best option to avoid snow and ice on the trail. The full moon will be nice for the pre-dawn portion of the hike.
These dates are, of course, the hardest to get. Then you need to decide on your group size. You can have between 1 and 15 people for the main Mount Whitney Trail. The more people you have in your group, the tougher your chances for a permit. You are only allowed to submit one application per person, and are only allowed one lottery permit per season. You can however purchase more permits after the lottery if you want to hike multiple times in a season.
You have a month to purchase your permit, or else it will be forfeited. Print this out and bring it to the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center to get your actual permit the day before your hike. Yes, there is another piece of paper. More on that later. Visit the Whitney permit lottery page for up to date information on the application dates, process, and links. If you were unsuccessful getting your permit, there are some other ways you might be able to do the hike.
First off, just check recreation. You can check the website up to the day before your hike to try and score a permit. If you are not going to use your permit, please cancel it so that others may have a crack at the slot. Often group permits have someone who bails out at the last minute. When you crest and see the Sequoia mountains … breathtakingly beautiful.
The switchbacks were a combo of soft snow and packed ice, so we hiked very slowly on the switchbacks because we had to be so careful with our footing.
We averaged about 1 mph the whole time due to the snow. Around 15 people summited that day. We saw some groups turn back at the switchbacks, so there were more people on the trail, just not at the summit. Be safe out there! Crampons and poles are necessary. Switchbacks can be sketchy at times so we took it slow going up and down.
We started at AM and got back to the parking lot at PM We spent 1hr and 45mins at the summit. The weather was perfect because we had clear skies and hardly encountered any wind, it was cold of course, but a beautiful day nonetheless. It took us 9 hrs to reach the summit, and 10 hours to get back because my husband hurt his ankle. We read that the lakes at the top were frozen, so we took plenty of water 3L will do the trick if you do the hike in a single day.
The trail was pretty icy and slippery at around mile 3… we all slipped at some point during the hike. The switchbacks were filled with ice and to be honest, the cables there will not save anyone who accidentally slips. From this point on the trail gets more difficult and dangerous until about a mile after the John Muir sign. Good luck everyone! We would not have been able to continue were it not for the tracks of other hikers and the hard packed snow that held our weight.
Multiple sections on switchbacks were definitely dicey but again, the hard snow helped us out. Hit the cables by 6am and made the summit by 10am. The descent was much more treacherous as we set off at am.
Got to the cables around 3pm and the snow the whole way was much softer and shelving off rather treacherously underfoot. I think our pace was 0. I was also dealing with a sprained ankle so getting back was difficult. By 5pm we still had 4 miles to go to the trailhead and conditions were much icier the whole way back.
Made it back to the car at pm pretty much delirious. It was an experience of a lifetime but it was very taxing both physically and mentally.
Made it to Trail Camp. Set up camp there, very windy until about 1hr after sunset. Didn't think I'd have time to summit, so played it safe and came down in the morning. For my first backpacking trip, this was amazing. Microspikes and poles were the key for me. We made it about 1 mile past Trail Crest. The summit was a little over a mile away but we made the decision to turn back. The back side was completely covered in snow. There were areas that we had to pass of just ice and it just became unsafe.
The wind kicked up and we were getting blasted with snow and sliding in most areas. Our group of 7 left at and made it to trail camp by However, once we got to slightly past the cables the amount of snow and ice seemed too dangerous for our group to attempt, we made it to about ft before turning around.
We did encounter several individuals that had ice axes and they continued on. I went on Oct 31 just got off the trail. Also know that the snowy trail is going to slow you down some and take more energy away from you. Spent an hour up there which was beautiful not windy at all just blistering cold. Left the trail camp at and made it to the parking lot by 6. We left at am and our group of 3 made it up the first of the switchbacks and just past the cables at 12pm.
We had microspikes and poles throughout the entire hike and would not have made it even close if not for those items. We were with their other friends that turned around at the cables due to the conditions.
We tried to summit on 28th of October in one day. There were plenty of snow starting from Lone Pine Lake, which started melting when the sun was shining and freezing in the dusk. The weather was pleasant during the day, no strong winds, no snowfalls.
The snow was getting dipper closer to Consultation Lake and 99 switchbacks. We stopped at m in the middle of switchbacks and turned back, cause the snow became deeper on the trail, approx one mile from the Trail Crest. Trail is snowy but it is packed down and as long as you have crampons you should be good!
My permit was for the 25th, but due to the snowstorm. I didnt go. I tried to go up today, the 26th, got up to lone pine lake to test it out, lone pine has about a foot of snow. Im not ready for that assuming the higher I go the worst it gets. I didnt bring my spikes. I would like to go on a backpacking trip on October 29th. Had a two day permit but elected to summit on Oct 24th to beat the storm. Microspikes and poles are highly recommended. The ridge line was extremely windy with freezing rain and sleet.
Made it very sketchy to pass. Made it to the summit with whiteout conditions around with a start time. Peaks are snow covered now. Highly recommend multiple layers and plenty of water. Took us about 18 hours with all the delays due to windy conditions and sketchy traverses of the ridge line.
Hi All. I'm hoping to summit the week of November 1. You will have the mountain nearly entirely to yourself. The peace and quiet is surreal! Camp under an amazing endless starry sky. The Sierras offer some of the most beautiful night skies.
With several major cities just hours away from Mt. Whitney, seeing the stars seems rare these days. Leave the city behind and fall asleep looking up at the TRUE night sky. You can also enjoy the night sky by hitting the trail early to reach the summit. You will enjoy shooting stars on the hike up and be rewarded with a sunrise view at the top of The U. Learn to camp in the snow. Anyone can camp in a tent in the middle of summer, but what about winter? Bring a snow shovel to dig in for protection from wind, learn how to properly melt snow for water, learn how to keep your stove working at altitude, how to stay warm in frigid weather, and learn how to keep your wet wipes from freezing when nature calls.
Practice a few new skills and you will find out that you can enjoy camping year around! A Self Issue Permit means you won't be able to use the excuse, "I wasn't able to get a lottery permit to climb Mt. Whitney," that I have heard a million times. Everyone says they want to climb Mt. Whitney, then always find a reason to blame the Park Service for stopping them.
Well if you really wanted to climb Mt. Whitney, then half the year is totally in your control. You can also probably get a walk-in permit during the other 6 months of the year. Stop making excuses to friends and family on Instagram or Facebook, and leave now for the mountain. Just get up, get outside and get up that mountain! No more excuses.
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