The following table—very imperfect, I fear—compiled by his own hand up to the close of 1897, and for 1898 and 1899, from letters kindly sent to me by his friends, will give some idea of his marvellous physical endurance and the extent of his knowledge of the Alps. His own portion of the list was found in his handwriting in his copy of Cunningham and Abney’s ‘Pioneers of the Alps’:—
| 1891 | Dent des Bosses | ||
| Grande Dent de Veisivi | |||
| Pas de Chèvres | |||
| Col de Seilon | |||
| Col de Fénètre | |||
| M. Capucin | |||
| Tête de Cordon | |||
| Tête d’Ariondet | |||
| Grand Combin | |||
| Grivola | |||
| 1892 | Thälihorn | ||
| Rossbodenjoch | |||
| Matterhorn | |||
| [1]Mittaghorn and Egginerhorn | |||
| Punta di Fontanella | |||
| 2 cols to Prerayen | |||
| Col d’Olen | |||
| Combin de Corbassière | |||
| Col de Boveire | |||
| Fénètre de Saleinaz | |||
| Col de Chardonnet | |||
| Pic du Tacul | |||
| M. Redessan | |||
| 1893 | Dent Blanche (This was in April, 36 hours.) No summer season in Alps. | ||
| 1894 | Piz Languard | ||
| Piz Morteratsch | |||
| Zwei Schwestern | |||
| Piz Bernina | |||
| Croda da Lago | |||
| Kleine Zinne | |||
| Grosse Zinne | |||
| M. Pelmo | |||
| M. Cristallo | |||
| Sorapis | |||
| Cinque Torri (3 ways) | |||
| 1895 | Rothhorn from Zermatt | ||
| Rothhorn from Zinal | |||
| Traverse Zinal to Zermatt | |||
| Riffelhorn from Glacier | |||
| Dom from Randa | |||
| Täschhorn and Dom (traversed from the Mischabeljoch to Randa—first time by this route—in one day) | |||
| Monte Rosa | |||
| Rimpfischhorn (from Adler Pass) | |||
| Matterhorn (traverse) | |||
| Weisshorn | |||
| Obergabelhorn | |||
| Grand Cornier | |||
| Triftjoch | |||
| Furggenjoch | |||
| Lysjoch | |||
| Süd-Lenzspitze (traverse) | |||
| Nadelhorn | |||
| Hohberghorn | |||
| Steck-Nadelhorn (?) | |||
| 1896 | Little Dru | ||
| Blaitière | |||
| Col du Géant (twice) | |||
| Charmoz (traverse) | |||
| Aig. du Plan | |||
| Aig. du Midi | |||
| N. peak Périades (by the Arête du Capucin) | |||
| 1897 | Schreckhorn (in January) | ||
| Finsteraarhorn | |||
| Jungfrau | |||
| Aletschorn (traverse) | |||
| Beichgrat | |||
| Bietschhorn | |||
| Lötschenlücke | |||
| Mönch | |||
| Mönchjoch | |||
| Eiger | |||
| Aig. d’Argentière | |||
| Aig. Moine (traverse) | |||
| Aig. Tacul (traverse) | |||
| Col du Midi | |||
| Portiengrat | } | In one day | |
| Weissmies | } | ||
| Fletschhorn | } | In one day | |
| Laquinhorn | } | ||
| 1898 | In winter: From Grindelwald to Rosenlaui by the Wetterhorn-Sattel, Finsteraarjoch, and Strahlegg | ||
| Two Drus (attempted traverse) | |||
| Big Dru | |||
| Grèpon (traverse) | |||
| Dent de Requin | |||
| Aiguille du Chardonnet | |||
| Aiguille du Midi | |||
| Mont Maudit | |||
| Mont Blanc (traverse) | |||
| Aiguille du Géant | |||
| Two Drus (traverse) | |||
| Riffelhorn | |||
| Wellenkuppe and Gabelhorn | |||
| Lyskamm and Castor | |||
| Alphubel, Rimpfischhorn, and Strahlhorn | |||
| Allalinhorn | |||
| Dent Blanche by South Arête | |||
| Täschhorn by Teufelsgrat | |||
| Dom, Täschhorn, and Kienhorn, descending by Teufelsgrat | |||
| 1899 | Riffelhorn | } | In his first five days at Zermatt |
| Pollux | } | ||
| Breithorn (traversed from Schwarzthor) | } | ||
| Six chief points of Monte Rosa | } | ||
| Matterhorn | |||
| Cols d’Hérens and Bertol | |||
| Petite Dent de Veisivi | } | In 12 hours from Kurhaus Hotel and back | |
| Grande” | } | ||
| Dent Perroc | } | ||
| Aig. de la Za (by face) | |||
| Aig. Rouges (traverse of all peaks) | |||
| Mt. Blanc de Seilon in one day | |||
| Dent des Bouquetins | |||
| Mt. Collon | |||
| Pigne d’Arolla | |||
| Dent Blanche (West Arête attempt) | |||
I cannot pretend that this list is perfect, and the brief notes I append are intended rather to give in a small space some of the points of human interest in the above bald list of names than for his mountaineering friends, to whom anything that could be printed here could convey little or nothing that was new.
It is a coincidence that he commenced his acquaintance with the Alps in the very valleys—Ferpècle and Arolla—in which he spent the last days of his life, and down which his friends mournfully escorted his body eight years later. It was on one of the Dents de Veisivi (the Petite Dent) that, in 1898, Professor Hopkinson, one of Jones’ numerous climbing friends, met his death with his two daughters and his son. As we walked down the Arolla valley the day before he fell from the Dent Blanche, Owen Jones was chatting, with a wonderful freshness of recollection of detail, of his climb up the Grand Combin during his first season in the Alps, and I believe the guide who led him up then was one of the search party from Evolena who found his body on the rocks of the Dent Blanche.
The earlier climbs of 1892 were described by him in a paper entitled ‘The Dom Grat and the Fletschhorn Ridge,’ which appeared in the Alpine Journal in 1898. A brief quotation from his own account will give some idea of the easy vivacity of his style.
Speaking of the Saas peaks which ‘were designed in pairs,’ he writes:—
‘It is, perhaps, to our credit that we took an easy pair first—the Mittaghorn and the Egginer—but our stay at Saas that year was to be short, and we could not afford to fail at higher work. A couple of Saas loafers undertook to guide us, but proved to be lamentably weak. They shed tears and ice-axes, and required much help from us dismayed amateurs. Then we left the district, and before my next visit my comrades were scattered over the globe, beyond the seductive influence of axe and rope.’
How characteristic of poor Jones the whole of that passage is! The unconcealed evidence of his own great physical strength, the playful sense of humour—his friends will remember how he used to explain his own initials, O.G., as standing for the ‘Only Genuine Jones’—in the words ‘they shed tears and ice-axes,’ and the touch of pathos, in the light of after events, of the phrase ‘beyond the seductive influence of axe and rope.’
The omission of the names of the Mittaghorn and Egginerhorn from Jones’s own list in 1892 shows that even his own record cannot be regarded as complete, a thing not to be wondered at considering the enormous amount of work he did.
It will be noticed that in this year, as in the year before and in 1894, Jones has entered the names of peaks and passes that in the succeeding years he would have considered quite unworthy of serious notice.