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In the world of winter sports, there are few pinnacles, if any, higher than those reached by the top heli-skiers and snowboarders on the planet, and Ryan "Rydor" McCune knows a thing or two about big mountain snowboarding. After all, he has been "ripping" up the slopes of Alaska for over 30 years.

Last month, McCune represented Valdez, Alaska, at what he calls one of the most impressive venues on earth, Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. The World Heli Challenge, "the most exotic ski event on the planet" as proclaimed by Powder Magazine, has been dormant since 2001, but this year the event was back in spectacular fashion due to massive global media support. With huge freestyle arial displays, big mountain line riding, and high-speed downhill racing, the long-anticipated return of the WHC was a sight for sore eyes.

McCune said he was called to return as a competitor by event organizer Tony Harrington, and soon thereafter found himself paying the entry fee and flying down to New Zealand.

"Basically, Tony was bringing this out of mothballs," he said. "When 2001 happened, 9/11 hit and it made it pretty much impossible for anybody to do anything at that point in time."

The challenge was broken down into three days with a different event on each day. McCune was one of nine male snowboarders competing, with 33 competitors overall. Participating athletes included skiers Ted Davenport and Mike Wilson, and snowboarder Andy Finch.

Coming from Alaska, McCune said he has gained valuable experience dealing with terrain like that at found at Lake Wanaka. Topography so epic it is only accessible by helicopter. McCune does his part to enlighten others.

"Like I always tell the younger kids," he said. "Don't pay attention to what's going on in the 'heli', you need to be looking at where we are going and figure out where you're going to go when you're out there."

"I noticed that some were paying attention to that while some were just tripping on the fact that they were actually in a helicopter."

Sandwiched in between a freeride day and the "VNC" downhill day, the day of big mountain riding put McCune's talent on full display as he grabbed first place.

"Coming from Alaska, you know he knows how to ride a line, so you know he knows how to make it look good," said one competitor in a video provided by www.worldhelichallenge.com. "It was no surprise to me when I saw him win first place."

Standings are determined by the combination of scores in all three events, and McCune earned third place overall.

McCune said growing up riding in Valdez with his friends definitely had an impact on the way he performed.

"You know, we live to go ride, the steeper the better," he said. "This venue just happened to be straight up and down and completely covered in snow, and it was soft."

As for the terrain Valdez boasts, McCune said it doesn't get much better.

"I'd say Valdez will set you up for any terrain," he said. "If you can ride anywhere in Valdez you can ride anywhere in the world."

Outside of competing in next year's World Heli Challenge, McCune's has big plans for a project he started 12 years ago.

"The idea is to make an international attraction," he said. "We'd like to put in a chairlift that runs 4,700 vertical feet, which makes it one of the largest ski resorts in North America. The chairlift itself is 18,000 feet long with two different midway-points that would service 5,500 acres."

"Just to give you an idea of how big this is, Whistler and Blackcomb combined have 89 lifts, and they service 8,800 acres. This has one chair lift and services 5,500 acres," he said.

It will definitely be world class said McCune, but it is a matter of getting the funding to put in the attraction, then taking that same amount of money put in to building the attraction to go out on a world-wide marketing campaign, specifically to Asia and Europe.

"At that point, you'd develop international flights that could actually land straight here in Valdez, but it's hard to find an investor like that in Valdez, ya know," he said laughing.

McCune said he won his entry fee to next year's World Heli Challenge, and will be flying down to New Zealand again for the entire month of August.

"I'd like to get down there and have a little bit more time to do more freeriding," he said. "I got to do quite a bit this year, but I never got to go out freeriding in the heli due to weather conditions."

McCune will look to improve upon his results from this year's event in a field of world-class snowboarders. And while the competition is unrivaled, the overall feeling is that of cameraderie between great athletes doing what they do best in an incredible venue that truly is one of a kind.

• Reporter Matthew Tynan can be reached at matthew.tynan@juneauempire.com.