Home: Staircase
Drifting Staircase   (+6, -1)  [vote for, against]
Get to the upper floor by climbing a dune.

The basic design is for an inclined plane to be filled with dry powered sand to whatever depth allows firm footing and minimizes shear. Mechanical sand gatherers pull away loose sand from the bottom of the incline and carry it up to a sifter that returns sand to the top of the incline.

Variations are spiral dunes and inclines with landings. Sand distribution naturally favors smooth inclines but herringbone or random surface irregularities could be options.
-- reensure, May 01 2005

I haven't done it very much, but many feature films would seem to confirm that climbing dunes is tedious if not nigh on impossible. But croissant for putting loose sand in a corporate or mall setting.
-- DrCurry, May 01 2005


Now, if you were in a desert and saw an handrail ascending a dune you'd climb it, right?
-- reensure, May 03 2005



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