Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Permit availability due to cancellations

How safe is it to assume a day pass or overnight permit will be available in the fall due to cancellations or no shows? I assume cancellations in the summer months are rare. What about fall? I just changed my trip from Sept. 28 to Sept 13, which is a Thursday. I would prefer to hike in on Friday the 14th, but all permits had been issued for that day. Do I have a pretty good chance of picking up a cancelled permit for Friday? I am just trying to get a feel for how often permits become available due to cancellations or no shows in the fall months (i.e. middle of September).
Hans

I've had many successful walk up permit acquisitions in the fall however I always try to get them for a midweek day. 9/14 is still early as far as the fall hiking season goes so my guess is that it might be tough to get it. I would stick with your current permits.

In the meantime, as your date draws nearer, periodically check the availability webpage from the Forest Service. Perhaps a permit for that day will open up.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/whitneyavail.shtml

That permit availability page is updated only every few days. For example, today is June 21 and the page was last updated on June 14. So you cannot depend on it for timely alerts.

I never reserve a permit in advance, and have never failed to get one when I walked in. This includes the middle of summer on weekends. Last year in late summer / early fall they told me they had closed every day that season with main trail openings left. You just have to know the special times when your chances are best. See step #6 under Feature Topics – Wilderness Permit Options – in the left column.

Overnight permits are easiest. Just walk in on the day of entry shortly after 11:00, when all the no-shows are declared SOL. You will still have plenty of time to hike to Trail Camp by dinnertime.

For day permits, your best bet is to show up shortly after 11:00 the day before and hang around. Someone with a reservation, but with fewer people than planned for, will soon show up. Get one of them. Enjoy the Alabama Hills, grab a burger dinner at the WPS, bed down at the Portal until the time you choose to start up the next day.

There is more to the story that a little research and inquiry can uncover, but these are the important points.

The INF Reservation Availability page is usually updated once a week.  I have been talking with the folks at INF, and they will try, with the next update, to replace the "permits available" number on all the prior dates with the number of permits that were left unused for that date.

I remember you mentioning this possibility some time ago, and this sounds like a good way to do it. Thanks for the update, I'll keep an eye on the site; maybe seeing the numbers will send me packing for Whitney 8^).

Thank you all for the info.
I feel comfortable I will be able to get a walk up permit for Friday.
I see that the permit page was just updated, including putting two permits "back" on Sept. 21, which earlier had zero permits available. Hopefully that will occur for Friday the 14th as well.
Hans