REVIEW: DMM Switch Ice Axes

Would I recommend them to some one climbing mid-grade routes? You can climb mid-grade ice with them without any great drama but you may need adjust your swing and where you aim due to the very curved shafts, particularly if coming from mid-curved tools like Flys, Vipers or Quarks. If you think it is unlikely that you will be climbing harder than V or WI4, then a more general technical tool like those just noted (or perhaps the DMM Apex) could be a better choice, particularly if you are mountaineering with them and want a 'proper' spike at the bottom. But if your ambitions include plumb vertical ice, freaky wind-formed cauliflowers, over-hanging hoared-up rock and the most tenuous of turfy seams and cracks – and you have the biceps and shoulders for that – then the DMM Switches will have you future-proofed for climbing as hard as you can and dare.