In reply to Hendrix464:
A friend bought a Sum'tec adze as his first axe, with the intention of of pairing it with the hammer at a future date if necessary. He seemed to like it, and I can see why.
My first pair were an old pair of Black Diamond Rage, bought used from here, and one of the first things I did was buy a lightweight mountaineering axe for the moderate terrain where I spend most of my snowy time. I've since replaced the Rages with some Vipers, and because I'm a wimp who's very comfortable not having serious ambitions above Scottish III and AD, I frequently climb with the hammer paired with my mountaineering axe (a Petzl Summit). It's a great sort of combination for when you want two axes but the terrain is moderate or there's a lot of 'exciting walking' to get to, from or off the route.
The Sum'tec, I reckon, would make a great start if you're just getting into snow and ice. I imagine if you wanted to pair it with something else in the future, the corresponding hammer would happily get you up things up to a respectable grade. And they're light.
TL;DR: I think they'd be an excellent choice.
Post edited at 18:18