"We won't be running the Extreme Day in anything but the best conditions," said Tony Harrington, event organizer. "The safety of competitors is our number one concern. But it looks like we'll definitely be flying tomorrow. A big high-pressure system is approaching New Zealand's South Island and we're nearly certain tomorrow will bring blue skies and no wind."

"You just can't beat jumping in helicopters with a heap of your buddies, heading into some amazing big mountain terrain, and cutting loose..."— Dave "Gravy" Keam

The venue for the Backcountry Heli Extreme Day looks likely to be an area deep in the Southern Alps known as "Extreme Arena," a natural amphitheater about 400m across at the top.

"It'll be heart-stopping stuff for those of us lucky enough to witness it first hand," said Harrington. "The first half of the descent will be pretty gnarly, giving competitors the chance to show their big-mountain riding skills. The lower part though has a series of super fun roll-overs and natural wind lips which will bring the spirit of fun freeriding into the extreme event."

It is expected that snow conditions will be good, with at least 12 inches of fresh powder and deeper in places.

According to Dave "Gravy" Keam of Australia, currently in 5th place overall in the men's skiing division, "We're all pretty eager to get up there. It's been such a fun festival of freeriding, and the standard has been amazing. You just can't beat jumping in helicopters with a heap of your buddies, heading into some amazing big mountain terrain, and cutting loose. Gotta be one of the funniest events in the world!"

Work on the massive big air jump for the Pulsate Wanaka Big Air event is now very close to finished. The Big Air will be run on Saturday night on a hill overlooking Wanaka as the finale for the Rip Curl World Heli Challenge. Truck loads of snow are being brought into town and packed onto a huge scaffolding tower to make a jump that will have competitors flying up to 25 meters in length and well over five meters above the ground.

"This Big Air event has turned into a truly international event. It's beyond my wildest dreams to have truly world class competitors like Michi Albin, Brian Iguchi, Devun Walsh, BJ Leines, Jeremy Jones and Rob Kingwell. Together with New Zealand's own Aaron Jamieson — last year's winner — and Olli Bourke, as well as many others, this event is going to be fantastic."

Another big addition to this year's Pulsate Wanaka Big Air is the inclusion of skiers in the event. "This year we've got some of the very best new school trick skiers in the world who'll be demonstrating tricks never before seen in the Southern Hemisphere," said Harrington. "Skiing is currently going through a new revolution. Skiers are now performing tricks pioneered by their snowboarding cousins. There's lots of new energy running in skiing and this Big Air will be a showcase for the world of where these guys are at. People like JF Cusson, Shane Szocs, Brad Holmes, Josh Lubek - it's going to be awesome!"

— Reports supplied by Tony Harrington