On Sat, 8 Nov 2008 01:52:07 -0500, Buerste wrote:

Imagine a sheet or strip of gauze cloth on a table. Imagine you have a
block of wood with a plastic material that has cuts in it like fish scales,
all going one way. You could slide the block one way on the gauze and the
fish scales would grab the gauze and move it along the table. When you
slide the block the other way, the fish scales wouldn't grab and the block
would just slide across the gauze.

Kind of a one-way clutch for gauze. I heard rumor that 3M made something
like this but can't find it. Any experience or ideas?

My mom's cross-country skis had sealskin strips for going up hill.

Might work.