Small tidbit, did not see mentioned, my understanding is the red/black spars are the shape they are so that if they get caught at the ice in, they can slide down/trough the ice as it moves and not get dragged away and out of position.
That being said, even something as simple as a rubber post on the top of one or the other would help greatly when heading west into the sun. Anything to make the shadow 'different'. Even the best polarized sunglasses can't tell you if it is red or black when you get a trillion lumens behind it
And ditto to what others have said, nothing worse than trying to navigate a small channel with black non-reflective spars on a moonless sky and no light polution to help. I've bonked a black spar or two at crawling speed over the years. *oops*