High Sierra Topix

Planning on hiking from bishop pass to JMT and then out over Whitney and down to lone pine. Do I need a permit to exit over Whitney? If so I think they are all booked at this point for early July. Could I manage to go out that way without a permit? Other alternatives?

If you are hiking down the Mt Whitney trail from Trail Crest to Whitney Portal then you need a permit designated "Exit Mt Whitney". You are correct to assume that those types of permits will not be available to you, but it doesn't hurt to try.

You can extend your route a little further and exit at the next trailhead south, which is Horseshoe Meadow. There are several ways to get there, some off trail. The two common exits are over New Army Pass or Cottonwood Pass. The road from Horseshoe Meadow joins the Whitney Portal road near the bottom and ends up in Lone Pine.

There's a little more to it. The reason you need the Whitney permit is that your entry point is Bishop, in Inyo, and Inyo has an exit quota for The Whitney main trail. If you have a permit from any other jusrisdiction, SEKI, YOS, Sierra NF etc, there is no quota (hint, hint), but you do need need Whitney designated as your exit. Except from an Inyo entry, this does not add any more lottery risk to your getting the permit: its just a blank that has to be filled out.

The real killer is that the Inyo exit quota is a daily deal, so strictly speaking, you have to exit on the exact day your permit designates. For more info, I would post this at Whitneyzone.com and see what the experience of a lot of Whitney hikers turns up