UKH

Forum users with literary interests may remember that I recently drew on the help of the hive mind to compile a bibliography of modern climbing-themed novels, published since 1979. I'm now in the process of writing mini-reviews of them and I'm part-way through Death on Site (1989) by Janet Neel*. This is proving to be an entertaining and well-written formula whodunnit with climbing used to provide an exciting and unusual context. However, there are what seem strange and perfectly avoidable errors, one of which is referring to a relatively easy climb as being graded "Medium to Severe". I've never come across this grade and it seemed so daft to invent it that I began to wonder if it was ever used in Scotland back in the day. Can anyone shed any light? If not, I'll stay with daft and knock a star or two off for lazy research.

*the Labour peer Baroness Cohen of Pimlico

It sounds like a poorly remembered grade range of “Moderate to Severe”. Medium has never been used. Is the book title really Death On Site as opposed to Death On Sight?

Yes, I thought something similar myself, but I wanted to check there wasn't something arcane in Scotland (where the climbing takes place) that I hadn't come across. And yes, the title is a bit of wordplay, since the climbers also work as scaffolders on a construction site. It's actually quite well written in general, but you have to ignore a couple of silly technical errors where the climbing is concerned.

Scottish guidebooks had a graded list at the back. But can only recall Severe as the severe grade. Lakes used to have mild severe as one of the grades