TIMBERLINE LODGE – An air horn blared three times Saturday to grab the attention of campers sitting in the snow finishing their lunch.

”Everyone who wants to learn back flips, get up here now,” a woman yelled through a megaphone.

A small herd of teenagers packed up their things, grabbed their snowboards and slowly trekked up the south side of Mount Hood to the top of a hill above a huge jump.

Welcome to summer camp Oregon style.

Sure, the campers will take home some arts and crafts from the High Cascade Snowboard Camp, but the real reason kids flock here each year is to take home new tricks like back flips, front-side 540s and McTwists.

”The jumps and the pipe are like no other place in the world,” said 17-year-old Chris Lazier of Redmond. ”It’s just cool to be up here.”

”Here” being snowboarding in the middle of July on a snowfield at 9,000 feet under bright blue skies and temperatures in the low 80s.

Both Chris, and his friend, Austin Shannon of Bend, have been to the camp three times over the last few years to learn new tricks, meet new people and become better snowboarders.

”It makes it so we don’t have such a big gap (without riding) before winter,” said Austin, a 16-year-old Mountain View High School student.

Campers spend most of their day on the mountain practicing in one of the three halfpipes, the quarterpipes or on rails and jumps in the snowpark.

Along with the camp’s staff, professional snowboarders including Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers, X-Game champion Barrett Christy, teen-phenom Shaun White and Bend’s own Leslee Olson help campers learn new tricks.

Thirteen-year-old Donny Stevens of Bend stopped while walking up one of the halfpipes Saturday afternoon to watch White take a run.

”The coaches really help,” Donny said. ”If you want to learn something new, they really push you to try it.”

Donny will bring his newly-learned frontside 540 (spinning 1 times in the air) to Mount Bachelor this winter.

”I’m pulling them three out of every 10 times,” he said, smiling. Donny’s parents took a trip to Phoenix earlier in the year and told him they’d let him do something fun by himself this summer.

They took care of the $1,660 bill for the 10-day camp.

After the day on the mountain, campers can go mountain biking, fly fishing or hiking in the area.

There’s plenty of hiking on the mountain during the day, too. Campers ride the chairlift to the top of the mountain in the morning, but they have to walk 500 feet up to the top of the halfpipe after each run.

Campers also can spend their afternoons taking Japanese lessons, learning to crochet their own beanies or skating the Vans skatepark while pros and coaches help them learn new tricks on the concrete.

Each snowboard session has about 180 campers between the ages of 12 and 18, including about 30 young people from Japan. Separate adult camps also are available.

”The Japanese kids are super duper into this,” said James Jackson, a coach and mountain supervisor from Bend. ”The (U.S) kids like to have fun with the language. It’s good to bring the two cultures together, especially in an environment like this.”

Snowboarding drew Donny to the camp, but other things are making the experience memorable.

”You meet a lot of new people from all over. It’s crazy,” Donny said, adding that he roomed with campers from New York and Pennsylvania. ”It’s amazing how far people will travel to come here.”

Sal Masekela, host of the ESPN X Games, is a fixture on the hill each summer. He said he sees campers develop bonds that last long after the session ends and the teens head home.

”It’s just an invaluable experience for kids,” he said. ”They’re getting to know each other through snowboarding – the open mindedness and tolerance. It’s amazing.”

Ted Taylor can be reached at 541-383-0375 or ttaylor@bendbulletin.com.