Mount Whitney permits

The Mount Whitney Trail starts at Whitney Portal, 8,300 feet, above Lone Pine, California. A wilderness permit is required all year. Day hikers and backpackers draw from separate quotas.

Dates below are as posted on the Recreation.gov permit page on the check date. That page does not name a year. Confirm them for 2027 before relying on them.

Two permits, two quotas

Day use. Good for a single day, midnight to midnight. It covers day trips anywhere in the Whitney Zone, including climbing routes. It cannot be combined with another permit to pass through or exit over Whitney.

Overnight. Covers a multi-night trip that starts on the Mt. Whitney Trail. It may exit elsewhere. It does not cover an approach by the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek.

Every person in the party counts against the quota and pays the per-person fee. There is no reduced rate for children, seniors or military.

Lottery dates

The Recreation.gov page does not list the application window on its overview. Check the lottery section there for the current year.

Where returned dates go

April 22 is the one scheduled return. Every award a winner declined or forgot comes back on the same day.

After that, space returns in three ways the page describes:

• Smaller parties. A leader can reduce group size online. There is no refund for doing it.
• Moved dates. An entry date can be changed online 12 or more days ahead if the new date has quota. The old date is vacated.
• No-shows. A day-use permit not printed by noon the day before entry is cancelled. An overnight permit not printed by 10 am on the entry date is cancelled.

Recreation.gov does not state when, or whether, each of these puts space back on the online calendar. No release hour is published.

Whitney refunds nothing, so no refund deadline pushes holders to cancel early. A holder who cannot go may just leave the permit unprinted. Inyo National Forest does not say this; it follows from the no-refund rule. It suggests returns are scattered, with some arriving only a day ahead.

Catching one

1. Decide day use or overnight. They are separate inventory and a day-use opening does not help a backpacker.
2. Fix the head count. Each person needs quota.
3. Enter the lottery.
4. Be on Recreation.gov on April 22 for unclaimed dates.
5. Set an alert on your permit type and dates for the rest of the season.
6. When a message arrives, confirm the permit type and party size on Recreation.gov before paying.

OpenCampsite's Whitney guide has ready-made watches for the overnight Mt. Whitney Trail permit and for day use. The alert reports space it saw on the reservation calendar. It does not apply to the lottery, it does not hold the space, and it does not guarantee a permit.

Rules that cost people their permit

• Print or request the permit starting one week before the trip. An unprinted permit is cancelled as a no-show at the times above.
• Only the listed group leader or alternate can pick up or use the permit. Leader names cannot be changed or added.
• Permits cannot be sold or transferred.
• The permit is valid only from its stated entry date.
• The leader carries the signed permit and shows it to rangers on request.

On the mountain

Recreation.gov says to expect 12 to 14 hours for the day hike and describes the trail as usually free of snow from July to late September. With snow or ice the route is a mountaineering trip. A permit does not make it safe.