Pomas are a type of manufactured chairlift, it’s not the brand. Doppelmayr makes platter lifts, which are sometimes called “Pomas”. Because the brand Poma was known to make many platter lifts back in the day, the Poma name stuck when other brands used the design. Hence why some lift’s like the one’s at Beartooth are named “Pomas”.
Tow style surface lifts in general are almost always referred to as “Poma lifts” with some exceptions to T-bars. Poma used to be the largest manufacturer of T-bars and Platter lifts which is why everyone calls them Pomas even when not made by Poma
I find this confusing. At least in Europe Poma is mostly associate with their distinct detachable platter lifts, which I’ve not seen any of in the US myself (although there probably are some). For fixed grip platters they don’t seem to be a very major player.
Also interestingly in British English neither the word “Poma” nor “platter lift” is used for single-person surface lifts, but “button lift”. I’m curious what Aussie calls these as they are often more closely aligned with British than American English.
I grew up skiing Table Mt., CA, now Mountain High North. Table had 3 detachable Poma lifts installed in about 1953/54. Pomas # 1 and 2 ran at maybe 500-600 feet per minute. The expert Giant Poma ran must faster, estimating 650-700+ fpm. Each platter was about a 9-12′ slightly curved aluminum tube with a fixed 7-8″ plastic disc, attached to a flexible series of springs leading to the clamp. The liftie pulled a lever, which engaged the clamp on the cable. When one is 9 y.o. and light, the vertical lift was greater than the horizontal when the clamp engaged! The platters disengaged when arriving at the bottom terminal. It’s too bad Warren Miller only focused on wipeout scenes at Snow Valley, CA, near Running Springs, and didn’t film the take-off crashes, as well as when a nubie would wipeout and slide backwards down the 30 degree track towards skiers following. The three Pomas were powered by diesel engines at the bottom.
The D Boyce detachable platter Poma at Wold Creek appears to be very similar in design, albeit 14 years newer. Notably, PBRopetech noted that detachable platter Pomas were very labor intensive to maintain.
Lift Blog 
Doppelmayr “Pomas”. Hmm.
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Pomas are a type of manufactured chairlift, it’s not the brand. Doppelmayr makes platter lifts, which are sometimes called “Pomas”. Because the brand Poma was known to make many platter lifts back in the day, the Poma name stuck when other brands used the design. Hence why some lift’s like the one’s at Beartooth are named “Pomas”.
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Tow style surface lifts in general are almost always referred to as “Poma lifts” with some exceptions to T-bars. Poma used to be the largest manufacturer of T-bars and Platter lifts which is why everyone calls them Pomas even when not made by Poma
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I find this confusing. At least in Europe Poma is mostly associate with their distinct detachable platter lifts, which I’ve not seen any of in the US myself (although there probably are some). For fixed grip platters they don’t seem to be a very major player.
Also interestingly in British English neither the word “Poma” nor “platter lift” is used for single-person surface lifts, but “button lift”. I’m curious what Aussie calls these as they are often more closely aligned with British than American English.
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I grew up skiing Table Mt., CA, now Mountain High North. Table had 3 detachable Poma lifts installed in about 1953/54. Pomas # 1 and 2 ran at maybe 500-600 feet per minute. The expert Giant Poma ran must faster, estimating 650-700+ fpm. Each platter was about a 9-12′ slightly curved aluminum tube with a fixed 7-8″ plastic disc, attached to a flexible series of springs leading to the clamp. The liftie pulled a lever, which engaged the clamp on the cable. When one is 9 y.o. and light, the vertical lift was greater than the horizontal when the clamp engaged! The platters disengaged when arriving at the bottom terminal. It’s too bad Warren Miller only focused on wipeout scenes at Snow Valley, CA, near Running Springs, and didn’t film the take-off crashes, as well as when a nubie would wipeout and slide backwards down the 30 degree track towards skiers following. The three Pomas were powered by diesel engines at the bottom.
The D Boyce detachable platter Poma at Wold Creek appears to be very similar in design, albeit 14 years newer. Notably, PBRopetech noted that detachable platter Pomas were very labor intensive to maintain.
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