He is best known for the first British solo ascent of the north face of the Eiger in 1981, and for his climbs on the Matterhorn and South Col on Mount Everest.

However, an earlier injury - a result of a motorbike accident - led to his joining the Military Police whilst on his two-year National Service.

[9] Jones was filming Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler when they made the first ascent of Everest without oxygen in 1978.

[13] As a skydiver, Jones jumped onto the North Pole and down the east face of Cerro Torre in Patagonia.

In 1991, as a member of a four-man team, he flew two hot air balloons over Mount Everest, an exploit which gained three entries in the Guinness Book of Records.

[18] An unassuming man, he still walks, climbs, skis and jumps,[19] and a recent documentary by S4C screened in 2007/8 called Alpau Eric Jones saw him revisiting the Alps.