ASPEN ” For U.S. Snowboarding’s best pipe riders, school is now in session at Buttermilk.

A group of Olympic hopefuls, including local Olympic medalist and Winter X Games champion Gretchen Bleiler, will be training at the Buttermilk superpipe through April 20.

When looking for a site for the spring training camp, U.S. Snowboarding officials settled for nothing but the world’s best.

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The superpipe at Buttermilk is one of only five 22-foot pipes in North America and was recently chosen as the No. 1 pipe in Transworld Snowboarding’s readers poll.

“This is definitely the cornerstone camp of our program. It’s going to be amazing,” said Mike Jankowski, U.S. Snowboarding’s top halfpipe coach, in a press release. “We’re going to be getting after it and riding a perfect 22-foot pipe in Aspen at Buttermilk.”

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Bleiler, for one, is excited for her teammates to be able to practice in the halfpipe that holds one of snowboarding’s biggest events, the Winter X Games.

“It will be great having our team camp in my hometown of Aspen,” said Bleiler. “The Buttermilk pipe, built for X Games, is one of the best in the world and it should be a progressive couple of weeks.”

Other riders in town include 2002 Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, Vt.), 2006 Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter (Belmont, Vt.) and U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix joint overall champions Steve Fisher (Breckenridge) and Louie Vito (Sandy, Utah).

“We’ve got a season’s worth of competition and training under our belt. Everyone is coming out on the top of their game for this spring camp and it’s a good time to get out there and build on what they’ve already got going for the season,” Jankowski said.