BackCountry Permits 2022

[zozeppelin]

Sorry to hear that Scott. I find it really hard to believe those sites aren’t available late September, with standard application numbers and the increased availability. Eagerly anticipating a snapshot of what is left.

I’m skeptical they’ll ever fix the website. This feels similar to the issue last year, where it’s not just advanced availability, it’s everything (trails, roads, etc). Story from the ranger then was licensing or something to that end- if it isn’t fixed by now ….

I’m curious as to how many no shows there will be.

[wnysteve]

I'll be there in early August. Planning to spend day 2 hiking in the Hudson Bay Creek Valley. Open to suggestions!

Are you going to day-hike from REF to Triple Divide Pass on Day 2? That is a pleasant approach to access the Pass.

[paul]

Just got my "Unable To Confirm Any Of Your Reservation Choices" email from Glacier.

Not a total surprise as I had picked some routes with bottlenecks but I also had a date spread from August 8th to September 22nd as well as campsite substitutions on the routes I had requested.

Requested itineraries were:

GAB-MOL-MOL-GAB
GUN-GUN-ELL-SPE
ELF-HEL-GAB-GAB
FLA-FIF-FIF-GRN

I really thought the Sept 22nd end date would allow something to be awarded ...even though I suspected we might not be able to actually do the trip due to weather.

Scott

Sorry about that Scott. I bet if you went in the BC office in mid September this year you would get something close to GAB-MOL-MOL-GAB. I can't imagine it would be that tough to get something in the area that time of year. I bet you anything there will be a ton of no-shows and cancellations this year.

[Sue Z]

I'll be there in early August. Planning to spend day 2 hiking in the Hudson Bay Creek Valley. Open to suggestions!

Are you going to day-hike from REF to Triple Divide Pass on Day 2? That is a pleasant approach to access the Pass.

That's a possibility, although it's a long day. I'm wondering if there are any interesting side hikes to lakes or waterfalls, or maybe to a mostly class II summit.

[zozeppelin]

Looks like they're done with processing the initial batch and the advanced availability site is back up and working well. Walk-in is not, but trail status and closures are.

Mind blowing how few are left, especially all the way to end of schedule (September). GRN, STO completely gone. FIF might as well be. I take that as a good sign the rangers did well to pack in as much as possible (no dangling sites).

I did a capture prior to the start of most of the processing (3/20), and there were 14,300 site-nights available. As of today, 5,300. So 9,000 site-nights reserved, for 4,000 permits. I'd assume about 1/4 rejected, so 3 nights per successful reservation seems reasonable.

My recollection was more availability (mid-late September always available), so with the additional site availability (up to 80%) and an average number of permits, the result is puzzling.

I'm going to see if I can track no-shows this year.

Since my permit was rejected, I was hoping to scoop up a creative route with hopes of a walk-in adjustment, but I couldn't find compelling route and time combinations. I'll be keeping an eye on availability to see if there are any cancelations. Here are two I was considering:

9/16: PAR, ISA, COB, OLD, UPN, BEA, COA
9/21 MAN, HEL, GLF, KOO, FIF, FLA (walk-in improvement of GLF->MOL/GLH, KOO->STO, FLA->GRN with GRN being the most important).

Availability screen dump link.

[sbosecker]

Looks like they're done with processing the initial batch and the advanced availability site is back up and working well. Walk-in is not, but trail status and closures are.

zozeppelin

Thanks for posting this...

I had a link from years ago for the Backcountry Advanced Availability page. Apparently they've changed the URL to

https://www.nps.gov/applications/glac/b ... bcmap.html

I've sent in an itinerary for the Glenns Lake area beginning on September 15th. GAB-GLH-GLH-GAB

We'll see what happens.

Logistically I'm hosed at the moment because there are no cars for rent in Kalispell (at least at the airport) for the week I would need one.

I also did a quick check of lodging at St Mary & the Many Glacier area on September 14th. Nothing available at this time.

Jeez....

Scott

[teapot57]

Something is not right. When I look at the Backcountry Availability page, it is showing lots of green. Just about every possible route available!

I still have an application out there that I have not heard back on and haven’t received a refund yet . . .

[Sue Z]

Yup, it's messed up again. It only worked for a couple of days.