YouTuber Breaks Down How Poma Lifts Actually Work

Building a ski lift that has both left and right turns is an engineering challenge. Poma lifts are an excellent example how to address this problem, and they also typically operate at higher speeds than traditional ski lifts.

But how do they actually function?

A YouTuber named Sandro breaks it down on his channel in a video titled, "The brute force approach to the impossible skilift problem: Poma lifts!"

There are many things in day to day life I don't understand the engineering behind, but still use, like cars, internet, and, well, let's face it... any type of advanced technology.

It's always nice to know a little more about the world around us, and we trust ski lifts heavily when ripping around the resort, so it's really nice to know how those work.

Sandro admits he has been mystified by these lifts for a long time, and his hunt for answers was made more difficult because these lifts are rare.

But in Switzerland, Poma lifts run amuck. St. Luc uses them heavily.

The lift is attached to the rope by a telescope pole type mechanism. There are multiple sections of metal pole, so the pole can effectively be "bent" if one part goes one direction.

Also, keep in mind that some Poma lifts have the grip on the left, and others on the right.

When the deflection goes inward (away from the grip attached to the top rope) making an inward turn makes sense: the grip doesn't come in contact with anything while turning to the left.

The outward turn, however, is more interesting. Since the grip is on one side or another, it would bang into the wheel it has to go around to turn on one or the other side.

But the solution? Guard rails. The grip slams into guiding rails around the wheels that spin the ropes one way or another, effectively switching the side the grip faces while it turns.

The way it is able to do this is because the pole has different sections, and it can make angles without breaking.

This concept really only clicks after watching the video a few times, because the close-up footage of the lift going through the wheels is the key.

Once it clicks, it feels good to know something new, even if most of us may never ride a strange and innovative Poma lift in our lifetime.

Related: Skier Invents Rear-View Ski Pole Attachment

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