Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board what happens when you get caught without the right permit on the whitney trail?

If the exit permit applies to the whole Mt. Whitney zone, that would be new for this year.
If you have to take chances, the Main Mt. Whitney trail is by far the place rangers like to frequent. Other options like the MR or cross country into the Meysan lake canyon (definately harder) would decrease you chances of ever seeing one.

There is only one "exit permit" point -- Trail Crest, and then only if you pass through Trail Crest coming up from the west side in order to return to the Portal via the Main Whitney Trail.

The Whitney Zone, on the other hand, merely means a $15 (versus $5 elsewhere) permit reservation fee, when reserving permits in advance.

On a permit-related issue, I just noticed that there is now a daily quota during the quota season for the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek (MR) this year -- 10 per day, of which 6 are reservable, and 4 are not. I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later....