Downhill skiers were the original adrenaline junkies long before the X Games created extreme-sports chic. Practitioners of “heli-skiing,” where thrill seekers are transported by helicopter deep into mountainous backcountry and unleashed on downhill-slalom runs, must bleed Red Bull or Monster. Located in Nakusp, BC, Canada, amidst the Selkirk and Monashee mountain ranges, the K2 Rotor Lodge has become well known through Canada as a heli-ski destination.
Resort owners hired Berry Neon Sign Systems (Everett, WA) to fabricate a pole sign that conveyed the experience. The shop built the 12 ft. x 6 ft. 9 in., double-sided sign by cutting the aluminum faces to shape with a Gerber Sabre 408 CNC router, and formed the letters with an SDS automated channel notcher and bender, RAS Systems Flexibend electronic bender and Tennsmith metal shearer.
To illuminate the sign, they installed CAO Group’s Blaze white and red LEDs within the sign – (powered by a 60W Universal Signa power supply) and brightened the exterior with CAO Group S14 LED floodlamps.
Berry protected the metal components with Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint, and covered the white SABIC Polymershapes Lexan® polycarbonate second-surface faces with 3M™ Scotchcal™ translucent vinyl.
“Because of the extremely frigid conditions, and because the sign was relatively close to the ground, we designed the sign to be easily serviced,” Berry’s Cory Snider said.