Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board accessing Mt. Muir via MR?

I am curious as to whether it is "allowed" to go up the MR to Whitney, then down the main trail to Mt. Muir, and then exiting back over Whitney and the MR. I searched topics on the board but was unable to find answers to this question. The advantage of this would be to avoid the permit circus as I do not intend to use any more of the main trail than is needed to gain access to the west face of Mt. Muir. Any info on this is appreciated. Thanks!

a couple of weekends ago, i went up whitney via MR. then continued onto summit muir, and back down the main trail. before my day hike, i asked this question specifically at the ranger station in lone pine. no permits were needed to go up MR and down main trail in a day (and your proposed route is even less drastic than mine). as an added surety, we ran into a ranger at trail camp on our way back - he was satisfied by our reply that we went up MR and just using the main trail to get down..
you might want to check with the ranger station before your hike to see if this is still allowed (i have read in this board that this policy might change - search for "exit trail permits")..

i just realized that on your way back from muir to whitney, you will be going UP the main trail. don't know how that will work.. however, it would be quite intriguing if you run into problems with rangers for using UP trail for only a mile from muir to whitney and be perfectly fine using the WHOLE main trail to go back down..

As has been explained to me at the forest Service in Lone Pine, the permits apply to the trail used to enter the Wilderness. So if you go up the MR on a day hike without a permit (since you don't need one to do that) you are free to go down either trail....at least at the present time. I can't imagine that there would be some limitation on a side hike like Muir (even though you have to go back uphill to get back to Whitney). The permit quota limits how many people enter the Wilderness using the Mount Whitney trail. On the bright side, there is only a small chance you would run into a ranger and have to explain yourself that high up on the trail. The only difficult thing is Muir is not really a quick side hike after doing Whitney in one day up the MR. It probably represents a few hours if you return to Whitney to go back down the MR.

Wow! If it's permissible to go up the MR and down the MT without a permit, that's news to me. My partner and I have done just that multiple times, and we were checked for a permit on the way down each time.

My understanding has always been that, while you don't need a permit for the MR (provided you aren't staying overnight, in which case you need a wilderness permit), everything on the Main Trail between Lone Pine Lake and the summit is considered the "Whitney Zone", and use of this section requires a permit - regardless of your point of entry or the direction you're traveling.

If the purpose of requiring permits in the first place is to regulate (and limit) use of the Main Trail, allowing people to ascend the MR and descend the MT without a permit doesn't make any sense.

I'd love to see some other people weight in on this issue. Perhaps I've been wrong all along...

(It's happened before)

This was discussed in detail on the board a few months ago & verified by multiple phone calls to the forest service. Even Bob R. said he called. The whole MR above LBSL is actually in the Whitney Zone. There are limitations coming down the MT if you have a backpack. But if you are day hiking the MR you are free to come down the MT. I suppose they might still stop you just to ask. There is some feeling on the board that this may change in the future. Last month we went up the MR and came down the MT on a day hike. However by latter in the afternoon when we came down we saw no forest ranger to check anything.

Do a search for "exit permit" above and read the thread "exit permit for the mail trail" from June 26th, started by Iyagi. It will fill in some of the detail. Great to know until they decide to close in the "loophole"

In August (w/o a permit) I went up the MR came down the main trail and climbed Muir on the way down. I even met a ranger on the summit of Muir!Near Outpost Camp I was stopped by a ranger checking permits. He asked if I made the summit and did I have a permit. I told him I went up the MR and came down the main trail. He didn't ask anything else and just said have a save descent. Hopefully this won't change next year!

Thanks for the info everyone! I called the ranger station in bishop (inyo nf) and was told that exiting on the main trail without a permit after ascending the MR is allowed. Like others have said, this may change next season.