Like most snowboarders, Ashley Thornton loves to freeride powder. She says she doesn’t board in the terrain parks at Mount Bachelor unless the skies are clear and there’s no fresh snow.

So with the sunny weather on the mountain the last few weeks, Thornton has been hitting plenty of jumps and rails – which is a good thing, because on Sunday she’ll go up against the top snowboarders in the country in slopestyle at the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix at Mount Bachelor.

Not that Thornton, 23, hasn’t competed against the best before. Last year, she placed fourth in slopestyle at the Bachelor Grand Prix. And last month she took part in the Honda Session in Vail, Colo., another event that features only the top slopestyle riders.

But Thornton, who lives in Bend, is excited to be home, competing on a familiar hill. Although she was pre-qualified by virtue of her fourth-place finish last year, Thornton was not planning to participate in the Grand Prix until the venue was moved to Bachelor from Mountain Creek, N.J., due to lack of snow in the Northeast.

”It’s just a last-minute thing, but I feel like I’ll do pretty good,” Thornton says. ”It’s home, and I’ve ridden that hill (slopestyle arena) for the last three weeks because it hasn’t snowed. It’s comfortable to be at home. It’s not like going to a new place and learning their hill.”

In slopestyle, boarders are judged on tricks performed as they fly off jumps and slide down rails while riding down a slope. For the Grand Prix, Bachelor’s slopestyle arena gets transformed, with bigger jumps and more technical rails.

”They make it a little crazier, a little bit bigger,” Thornton says.

The Bend resident will be competing against Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., a 16-year-old who won the slopestyle gold medal at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., last weekend. Anderson also won the Bachelor Grand Prix last year.

”She was amazing to watch in the X Games,” Thornton says.

A skier since the age of 2, Thornton did not begin snowboarding until she was 18. She says she can learn plenty from the top riders who will be at Bachelor this weekend.

”I feel like I’m still learning,” she says.

Also still learning are other local snowboarders who are scheduled to compete this weekend. They include Thornton’s younger brother, 19-year-old Skylar Thornton of Bend, who is slated to take part in slopestyle.

In addition, four Bend snowboarders in the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation snowboarding program are on the Grand Prix roster: Katie Williams, 17; Josh Dodson, 16; and 13-year-olds Ben Watts and Max Warbington.

All four invited riders plan to compete in both Saturday’s halfpipe event and Sunday’s slopestyle.

”It’s great this event has come to Bachelor so they have this opportunity,” says Hans Hibbard, director of the MBSEF snowboarding program. ”For some of them, it’s just a good experience to be up against the best in the world. For others, they’re actually going for placing.”

Williams, a senior at Bend High School, competed in the Grand Prix last year at Bachelor and also plans to travel to the third stop of the Grand Prix series, Feb. 24-25 in Tamarack, Idaho.

Last weekend, Williams placed fourth in slopestyle and fifth in halfpipe at the Revolution Tour in Copper, Colo., a series for up-and-coming riders that will come to Mount Bachelor Feb. 9-11.

”I don’t really expect to do that well, maybe in slopestyle I’ll do OK,” Williams says of the Grand Prix. ”I’m just excited to ride a good course and a good halfpipe. It’s a tough competition. They’re all pros, and I’m pretty amateur.

”It’s cool watching the X Games and all the progression, with what the women have done. It’s cool to be competing against them.”

Dodson, a junior at Bend High, also traveled to Copper for the Revolution Tour, where he took seventh in slopestyle.

”I’m just kind of doing it to see where I place against all of them, and have fun in a bigger competition,” Dodson says of the Grand Prix, the 10th U.S. Snowboarding event hosted by Bachelor. ”I’ve gone up there to watch almost every year it’s been here.”

If You Go

What: U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix

When: Today – Halfpipe practice from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; slopestyle practice from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday – Women’s halfpipe qualifier from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m.; men’s halfpipe qualifier from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; halfpipe finals from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday – Women’s slopestyle qualifier from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m.; men’s slopestyle qualifier from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; slopestyle finals from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Where: At Mount Bachelor