What are the odds in the Mt. Whitney day hike permit lottery, and which dates draw best?

The Whitney lottery awards roughly 22 percent of applications overall. In 2023, 15,675 applications competed and 3,425 were awarded, covering 100 day-use and 60 overnight spots per day through the season.

The averages hide huge spreads you can exploit. Midweek dates in May, June, and October succeed at close to 30 percent on first choice, while Friday and Saturday requests drop near 10 percent. Peak July and August dates draw the heaviest application volume. So a Tuesday in early June is a fundamentally different bet than a Saturday in late July, even though it is the same form.

Three moves that follow from the data. Request Tuesdays or Wednesdays as your top choices. Target the shoulder months, accepting that May and June can mean snow on the upper mountain and October means short days. And list date ranges rather than a single date, since range applicants have historically outperformed single-date applicants.

The 2026 application window runs February 1 through March 15, with the season spanning May 1 to November 1. One more thing worth knowing: after the lottery, unclaimed and cancelled dates return to the general reservation pool, so a lottery loss in March is not the final word on your season.