More than 1,000 campers and some of the top snowboarders in the world will be rolling through Mount Hood this summer as High Cascade Snowboard Camp celebrates its 25th year of summer shredding.

Session One of HCSC’s summer camps starts on Monday, June 16 with guest star appearances by Sage Kotsenburg, Spencer Schubert, Kelly Clark and Gretchen Bleiler, among others. It’s the first of six scheduled sessions to run through August 12 at Timberline on Mount Hood.

The pros shred, eat and hang out with the campers both on and off the slopes, and the combination of top pro talent and hard-core youth riders attracts sponsor brands ranging from Burton and Salomon to Nike and GoPro.

“The quality of the pros that come through here every summer is amazing,” says Carson Schubert, marketing manager for High Cascade. “It’s an insane environment that we have up here. It is unrivaled.”

High Cascade is best known for its high-flying pros and rising stars, but the camp is open to all levels of snowboarders. The camp offers Soft Start instruction for beginners, Hot Laps programs for riders looking for mileage, Freestyle training for those perfecting new tricks, and BKPRO Sessions with Coach Bud Keene for high-style riders trying to break through to pro-level mastery.

Campers get free snowboard demos and access to jumps and terrain park features on Mount Hood, including a 22-foot halfpipe designed by by Pat Malendoski that was used by Olympic athletes from the U.S., France, Russia, Japan and Australia last summer.

Campers also will get access for the first time this summer to the facilities of Windells Camp, which served as High Cascade’s Mount Hood rival for decades before High Cascade and Windells joined in a partnership this spring.

Windells and High Cascade are the largest camps on Mount Hood, but they are far from the only summer camps. Timberline will host 122 camps this summer, including eight with U.S. teams.

Between High Cascade, Windells and the many coaches and riders from all over the world who converge at Timberline in summer, a significant portion of the snow sports industry funnels through Mount Hood each year. Superstars get discovered and sponsored, young athletes break through to the next level, and new rider-owned business brands such as Dang Shades and Airblaster get launched as mountain styles adapt and gear and fashion preferences change. Camps like High Cascade play a key role as incubators for taste-makers and entrepreneurs as well as riders. Trends get started that the industry is well-advised to pay attention to.

“You’ll get to see what will happen next winter here,” says Schubert.

Sage Kotsenburg is a great example. The former High Cascade camper got his first Signature Session on Hood long before he made it to mainstream fame with his gold medal performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics and his hilarious appearances on national television after the games. He captured the moment brilliantly and catapulted into a whole new stratosphere of fame and success, never losing the laid-back summer camp style and attitude that made him so popular on Hood and everywhere else.

Other High Cascade regulars such as Scott Stevens, Bode Merrill and Chris Beres also set new standards in style last summer on Mount Hood, boosting their reputations and careers for reasons made obvious in this edit from Suzy Greenberg:

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There is limited space still available for High Cascade’s summer sessions 3-6. The first two sessions are full for those staying in chalets but there are still a few spots for campers staying in the main lodge in Government Camp. Here is a link to dates and prices for the various High Cascade camp options.

In addition to the six camp sessions scheduled for this summer, High Cascade will also host a variety of events on Mount Hood such as the Drink Water Rat Race July 12, Bode Merrill Mini Pipe Invitational July 20, the TransWorld TransAm July 30 and the HCSC Bag of Tricks August 9. More on those events as they approach, so stay tuned.

Anyone with summer shred story suggestions for Shred Hood is welcome to contact us any time.

Last modified: June 9, 2014