Ben Nevis South Side.

During the North Face Survey the botanists and geologists worked hard to discover more about that side of the mountain. The South Side of Ben Nevis has less interesting botany but the geology is just as important to research. So today Roddy Muir of MVE and I spent a day in the sunshine scrambling and climbing around the crags at the top of Coire Eoighain. It's a wonderful place with a remote feel and completely empty even though we were within 500m of the summit.

The walk up by the side of The Waterslide is brutal but effective. From the foot of the coire the crags don't look very impressive but on closer inspection they get steeper and bigger. With sunshine all day we had warm dry rock to enjoy as we climbed and scrambled around looking at the rocks. We found it was all breccia, volcanic debris turned back into solid rock. We didn't find any contacts or lava flows but we can now say we've surveyed the whole of this area of crags for the geological map and model of Ben Nevis that Roddy is building. We also had amazing views all day over the Mamores and all the way to Ben Oss and Beinn Cruachain with the best view of Steall ever.