I was cruising the internet looking for marking flags for glacier travel and I found nothing at all. Very annoying and mildly stunned that the internet failed me. So I'm going to make my own based on a description from Freedom of the Hills (a must have book for alpine anything).

How many do you need? No idea. 50 is what I'm told for Mt. Columbia. Zero for The President and Vice Pres. Do your research to find out.

Materials

From my studies and personal experience, on clear days black shows up really good on snow. On icky days it doesn't really matter, but bright is a little more visible. So here is my compromise:

• Black garbage bag
• Orange garbage bag
• Iron and ironing board
• thin towel/rag (no holes however)
• Duct tape (purple and white are my colors, so I used purple duct tape)
• 3-4ft long Bamboo garden stake

Part 1: The Flags

1. Cut your garbage bags into 4 inch strips.
2. Lay one black strip and one orange strip on top of each other on your ironing board.
3. Lay the towel overtop. (prevents the plastic from melting to your iron)
4. Turn on your iron to about 3/4.
5. Iron slowly down the strip 2 or 3 times.
6. Lift the towel and check to see if the layers have welded together. If yes, remove, if no, repeat ironing until they do.
7. Cut your new double colored strip into squares.

Part 2: The Rest

1. take a 4 inch chunk of duct tape and lay it half over 1 side of a square.
2. Lay the top end of a bamboo stake along the edge of the square.
3. Fold the duct tape over and press firmly.
4. Repeat for each flag.