DMM quickdraws, particularly their carabiner design, are consistently among the best in the business. For years the Chimera was one of their flagship models, smaller than the popular Alpha Wire and thus perfect for fast and light trad climbs in the mountains, while retaining the benefits of a clean nose and great ergonomics. This has now been superseded by the Aether, a very similar design that can essentially be seen as an update to the previous Chimera. So how does it compare to its predecessor, and is there still just as much to love? 

Sizes 

As a quickdraw the Aether is available in several lengths, singly or in packs of six that make it slightly cheaper per unit:

• 12cm £25.99
• 18cm £26.50
• 25cm £26.99
• 60cm alpine draw £29.99 
• Single carabiner in various colours £12.99

In Use

The Aether's wire gate, small I-beam body and narrow dyneema sling are all designed with a primary focus on keeping weight to a minimum. This makes them ideal for mountain trad and trad onsighting where you want to minimise the weight of a heavy rack. I've also appreciated how the smaller draws sit neatly on the busy harness that I climb with in the mountains, making it less cluttered and easier to quickly select gear.

Overall handling is good for a lightweight specialist and there is a satisfyingly firm snap when clipping. If you have previously used the Chimera, you get slightly better ergonomics with its replacement due to an increase in dimensions both in the body and the gate opening, which has gone from 21mm on the Chimera to 23mm on the Aether.

For mountain trad and alpine scenarios, the Aether's lightness is its key selling point. However, the benefits of its low weight do come with some trade-offs in handling versus something like larger and more versatile such as the Alpha Wire. Whilst the Aether will obviously still work as a draw for redpointing and working routes, their smaller body, straight gate and smaller gate opening all mean this is not their forte. The same can be said for use with gloves, when a small gate can prove fiddly, so for reasons of size alone the Aether isn't optimum for winter climbing.

Despite being lightweight, the 11mm Dyneema sling offers good handling thanks to its stiffness at the rope end, making clipping easier. The keeper also prevents the gate from flipping, which is important given the relatively shallow basket, encouraging loading along the major axis. The three sizes I have tested give a good range of lengths for use on an onsighting mountain rack to ease the running of rope; ideally I'd probably add in a couple more 25cm for full versatility.

The gate's hooded nose is great for preventing snagging on gear or clothing, particularly when pumped, but I've come across a few minor issues. The hood is relatively wide and this means clipping some tighter gear can be slightly fiddly. Older nuts particularly that have pulled out wires can catch as you're clipping. This isn't often going to cause much of an issue, except perhaps when pumped. More of a pain with the clean-nosed hood design is trying to clip it into in-situ pegs with small eyes, and it may be worth bringing a narrower hook-nosed carabiner to do this - although I admit this is uncommon, and certainly isn't a make or break for me.

In the quickdraws only one colour option is currently available, and I might like to see different lengths colour coded for quick selection when glancing down at your harness.

Overall though, if you are using these for predominately mountain and alpine trad then the benefits in weight saving will vastly outweigh the small issues of fiddly clipping and quick selection.

Weight

Replacing my older draws with a set of Aethers has saved weight from my rack. On the kitchen scales I get an ultralight 69g (12cm), 71g (18cm) and 80g (60cm extender version), which essentially matches DMM's figures. I don't have a 25cm version to test but this is also available. The carabiner on its own comes in at 29g - a very slight reduction compared to the Chimera. This reduction in weight compared to the Chimera has meant a slight reduction in breaking force - but nothing to worry about safety wise (major axis 21kN, open gate 8kN). However, less material to reduce weight in the gate as well as in the skinny 8mm sling suggests that durability may not be up there with that of a more versatile or dedicated redpointing draw designed to take that bit more abuse.

Summary

I love DMM's quickdraws, and this also goes for the new Aether, which has the benefits of a clean-nosed design and good ergonomics, while still being really lightweight. For mountain trad and alpine rock, this weight saving is a major advantage. I have some small gripes about the hood occasionally being fiddly to clip, and the lack of colour selection, but these niggles are eclipsed by the benefits most of the time. Overall this is an excellent trad draw, and as usual with DMM it feels like something you can rely on.