Some ski lifts cover a distance of a couple of miles of so - meaning that there is about 4 miles of cable without a break. Surely no lorry could carry all that cable?

It is really cool. They actually make the cable at the site. They do it for suspension bridges too.

Alternatively in the case of ski lifts you can see at times where the cable has been spliced. Watch as it goes by.

The cable is actually brought in pieces and spliced together.

It comes on spools, and it is unraveled directly onto the pullies, strung up, and when spool 1 runs out, they spice it onto spool two.

The splice usually happens over 10-20 feet, so you dont really see the break because it is raveled up in the cable.

First they string a smaller lighter weight cable and use it to haul up a heavier cable, and then that one to pull up heavier cable until the get the size of cable they need. This is usually done between the support towers instead of the complete distance.

as was noted, the cable is spliced together, they have this slick tool that grabs the cable & pulls together, which loosens up the cable and allows them to actually braid individual wires together, the tension holds the whole mess together, the splices are marked with paint and have to be inspected if l remember right once every year.

yeah you are very smart

GREAT QUESTION! i've sat in ski lifts for hours and never thought about it! it is like why is there a light in a fridge but not in a freezer? stuff you never think about really.