1979 – Timberline begins operations on Mt. Hood, Oregon as the only area in the United States to offer summer skiing.
1989 –John Calkins and John Ingersoll form High Cascade Snowboard Camp contributing $4,000 a piece.
1990 – High Cascade holds its first summer snowboard camp with a slalom course and hand dug half pipe. Skateboarding is Camp’s first off-hill activity.
1993 – A vert ramp is added to HCSC’s skate facilities.
1994 – Wakeboarding is introduced as a camp activity and HCSC builds its first skateboard street course.
1997 – High Cascade and Pat Malendoski introduce Mt. Hood to the Pipe Dragon, the first mechanized means for shaping a half pipe. High Cascade Becomes accredited by the American Camp Association.
1999 –Vans, Inc., spear-headed by Steve Van Doren, purchases the camp after Calkins and Ingersoll decide to part ways.
2001 – Vans Skateboard Camp is formed.
2002 –Trevor Graves approaches then Camp Director Victoria Malendoski with the concept of a Photography Workshop. Graves saw it as a way to fill empty beds (during session five) and generate pro bono photography for Camp’s promotional needs. High Cascade’s Pat Malendoski gains worldwide fame as the builder of the 2002 Olympic Half Pipe in Salt Lake City.
2003 – High Cascade’s ACA Accreditation is renewed. Kevin English is hired as the Camp’s Executive Director along with Meagan Stein as the Camp’s Office Manager.
2004 – In January, Preston Strout leaves his snowboarding career to join the others in the Bend office. Burton holds the first Abominable Snow Jam at High Cascade, Windells and Timberline. That fall, Steve Van Doren from Vans, Inc. makes a surprise visit to the Bend, OR offices. The bomb gets dropped: Vans has chosen to sell the camp. After much contemplation as to the future of High Cascade, camp directors Kevin English, Preston Strout, and Meagan Stein consider going “non-profit.” In doing so, the three feel the company must have a higher mission. As such, they agree upon the simple yet powerful mission statement of“Life Improvement through Snowboarding and Skateboarding.”
January 21, 2005 –John Ingersoll, Kevin English, Preston Strout, and Meagan Stein purchase camp from Vans, Inc. as its new parent corporation, VF, fears the liability of owning a snowboard and skateboard camp. High Cascade Camps, Inc. is formed. That summer, Brad Kremer from Mack Dawg Productions leads the first annual Video Workshop during the Wille Yli-Luoma Signature Session™ and following Trevor Graves’ Photography Workshop.
Summer 2005 – High Cascade Skateboard Camp emerges from the former Vans Skateboard Camp. High Cascade introduces its first Signature Sessions™ with Scotty Arnold (Session 4) and Wille Yli-Luoma (Session 5). Creator of the new Marshmallow mascot and “Jumble” logo, Ami Voutilainen is hired full time.
Spring 2006 –Ami Voutilainen becomes a Partner in High Cascade Camps, Inc. HCSCgirl! program is launched, headed by Katrina Voutilainen. Cobra Dogs launches at HCSC, founded by former HCSC counselor and Airblaster founder Jesse Grandkoski along with snowboarding’s favorite photographer, Cory Grove. Signature Sessions™ expand to all sessions with an insane line up of snowboard royalty:
Session 1: Andrew Crawford and Josh Dirksen
Session 2: Scotty Arnold
Session 3: Pat Moore and Danny Kass
Session 4: Tara Dakides
Session 5: Wille Yli-Luoma and Gretchen Bleiler
Session 6: Jussi Oksanen and Jeremy Jones
Summer 2007 – Signature Sessions™ are offered during each session with:
Session 1: Andrew Crawford, Josh Dirksen and Janna Meyen
Session 2: Andreas Wiig, Scotty Arnold and Hana Beaman
Session 3: Jussi Oksanen, Wille Yli-Luoma and Leanne Pelosi
Session 4: Pat Moore, Lauri Heiskari and Erin Comstock
Session 5: Jeremy Jones, Danny Davis and Laura Hadar
Session 6: BJ and Erik Leines
Summer 2008 – A great year in snowboard history! Every session of camp was sold out by the time summer kicked off, Mt. Hood had a record breaking winter as 878 total inches of snow fell and the historical Al Englehart returned as a counselor for one session! We premiered Mack Dawg’s “Double Decade”, Think Thank’s “Stack Footy,” and Runway Films’ “La La Land”. Head Coach Dave Reynolds and Head Counselor Aera Neuman celebrated their 10th year working at camp and the Unicorn Bus only had it’s horn stolen one time!
Summer 2013 - former camper and staff member Terence Stilin-Rooney becomes camp director. Trevor Graves hands the HCSC photo workshop reins to famed photographer andy wright along with Tim Zimmerman and Chris Wellhausen.
Summer 2014 - HCSC and “rival” camp Windells, combine to form We Are Camp, LLC.
Summer 2015 - the least amount of snow in Timberline's summer operations history. Now, don't get it twisted: on the final day of camp in August, there were still areas in our park with over 25 feet of snow! "Low snow" on Mt. Hood is most definitely a relative term.
Summer 2017 - our founder, John Ingersoll, retires but remains "founder emeritus" and continues to serve as an official adviser to the company. Head digger, Cory Mcdonald, and program lead Gregg Janecky celebrate their 10th summer with HCSC, while young buck Jake Howell takes on a strange new thing for camp called “social media.”
Summer 2018 - HCSC gets a new campus on the forested 28-acre campus in Sandy, Oregon sharing it with Windells. Off-hill manager Aera Neumann and co-owner Kevin English celebrate their 20th summer with High Cascade. Gregg Janecky becomes HCSC new camp director for his 11th summer at HCSC.
2019 - Celebrating our 30th Anniversary. Snowboards have come a long way since our first summer in 1990, but the attitude is the same: grab your board, some friends, and rip the mountains!
2020 - Bobby Meeks, legendary pro snowboarder and Robot Food co-founder, joins HCSC as our VP of Sales and Marketing.
2023 - We officially name our inner courtyard loop road, “Aera’s Loop,” in honor of Aera Neumann’s 25 consecutive years at camp (the most of anyone she always points out, as Kevin English, who started with her in 1999, took off a couple summers). Meanwhile, Shaun White (maybe you’ve heard of him?) becomes an owner of camp along with David Blitzer, Josh Harris, and longtime camp owner and CEO, Kevin English.
2024 - The first Whitespace and Shaun White Signature Session™ ever! Riding to the parking still possible Session 6 all while contractors kick up dust building our best-in-world dryslope jump and airbag, designed by Banger Bags. Will Rivera takes over as Adult Camp boss and Blaise Rosenthal spends his third consecutive summer sharing the stoke of snowboarding with adults from around the globe. Oh yeah, @jimmyjamsimi (aka Jimmy Rehman) becomes youth camp director while Gregg Janecky, celebrating 17 years, moves into his ivory tower as Executive Camp Director and VP of Programming.
High Cascade Snowboard Camp will continue writing our history and we hope you become part of it!
