99 Switch-back (June 2016)
My Mt. Whitney Lottery result was unsuccessful this year. It seems to be hard to get the permit through the lottery last few years.
Key date to get the permit!
There are two important dates to get the permit for people who were unsuccessful the lottery.I mentioned in this blog a couple times, they are April 1st and May 1st.
On April 1st, people can make a reservation a spot which is not allocated through the lottery.
Although I checked the reservation site on the day, I cannot any good spots for the overnight permit. There are some spots for dayuse in weekdays. If you are interested in a day trip in weekdays, it would be a good chance to get it.
The other date is May 1st, people can make a reservation a spot which is not confirmed by a lottery winner. I got a permit from this type of spots last year.
My plan this year?
I will check availability on May 1st anyway, however, I have a backup plan this year.
Although the most popular route to hike Mt. Whitney is Mt. Whitney trail, a round trip from Whitney portal, there is another way to visit Mt. Whitney from the west side where John Muir trail goes. It is a long way to Mt. Whitney, however it is much easier to get a permit from that side. It is called "exit permit". I checked the reservation site and there are many available spots in the summer time.
I booked one of spots as my back up plan, which will be 3 nights 4 days trip from Cottenwood Pass.
I am a kind of excited to go that hike this year since most of hiking I had done recently is only one or two nights on the trail.
How about you? Would you also like to try it?
