Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 22:03:37 -0400

From: "Virginia P. Clark" Virginia.Clark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UVM.EDU

Subject: Re: QUERY: poma lift



At 03:51 PM 7/19/97 -0400, Orin Hargraves wrote:

At Rocky Mt. ski resorts I remember a sort of ski lift, what some

dictionaries call a surface lift, that the skier straddles while being

dragged on skis up the mountain. I don't find the term poma lift

(pronounced as if spelled pomma) in any dictionary, unless I'm spelling i=

t

wrong. Can anyone tell me if this is a trademark, or if not, what its

derivation is?





_RH_, unabridged, 2d ed., has the following entry:



"Poma lift. Trademark. A ski lift having a disklike support, placed

between the legs, against which a skier leans while being pulled uphill.

Also Pomalift."



Sometime between 1955 and 1957, what was supposed to be the first Poma

lift in the U.S. was installed at Burke Mountain in northern Vermont.

Riding it for the first week or so that it operated was fairly exciting--it

lifted people (and their skis, of course) off the snow for the first twenty

feet or so. I don't think many of them are still operating; I'd like to

know if there are some.