Eric Jones

Eric Jones (born 1936) is a Welsh solo climber, skydiver and BASE jumper, raised on a farm near Ruthin in north Wales. He took up skydiving in 1961 and began climbing a year later at the age of 26, climbing widely in Snowdonia, the Lake District and Italy before turning to solo climbing for its speed and freedom. He is best known for the first British solo ascent of the north face of the Eiger in 1981, filmed by Leo Dickinson as Eiger Solo, and for climbs on the Matterhorn and the South Col of Mount Everest. In 1969 he soloed the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru, and in 1971 he made the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Brouillard on Mont Blanc. In 1986 he became the first person to BASE jump from the Eiger, and later jumped from Angel Falls in Venezuela. In 1991 he took part in a hot air balloon flight over Everest.