Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board dayhike permit for sunday 06/28?

i have a dayhike permit for monday 06/29, for two people, but it looks like i'll have to be at work monday. what are my chances of swapping it in for a sunday entry permit if i get to the visitors center on saturday?

or does anyone have permit but can't make it this sunday?

any guidance appreciated. Thanks!

Your chances of getting a day hike permit for Sunday are quite good if you show up at 2 PM Saturday. If there are more walk-in requests than there are available no-show permits, you draw numbers -- a mini lottery.

But so far this year, they have not run out of no-show permits for anyone walking in. Sundays would be the first to "sell out", and expect that to happen the July 4 weekend.

You can view the walk-in permit options in the "Wilderness Permit Options" link to the left, specifically, read box 6, No Fee Permit Options.

You can see the unused permit numbers here:   Unused Whitney Permits - 2009
 

Thanks Steve - We took your advice to heart and drove up 5 hrs from San Diego to Lone Pine entirely on faith. got there at noon saturday, we luckily ended up swapping our monday permit for a sunday entry. we were doubly lucky to find a campsite at the portal (we couldn't make reservations since it was full but decided to check anyway before heading out to horseshoe meadows).

Left portal trailhead at 3AM, reached summit at 1PM (took plenty of breaks, my friend was hit with the altitude and had to turn back at Trail Crest). 4 main patches of snow: 3 on switchbacks (1 on cables, 2 traverses across snow fields higher up) and 1 on summit plateau. crampons/ice axe highly dependent on time of hike - we hit these parts of the trail well into the day so it was not icy and we never needed to use our equipment. good soles and good poles - they will do the trick. I forgot that the last water source was on the lower switchbacks - definitely made my descent from summit faster :-) were back to the car by 7:30PM.

Personally the Trail Crest was the most rewarding part of the entire hike. That view as one steps in from the east through the 'doorway' in the Sierra Crest is indescribably beautiful.