Entertainment- Actor Julian Sands spoke about the dangers of mountain climbing in an interview last year, Variety reported.
- The 65-year-old went missing in January this year while hiking in southern California's San Gabriel Mountain.
British actor Julian Sands — whose remains were found last month after he went missing during a hike in January — spoke about how dangerous mountain climbing could be in one of his last interviews, Variety reported.
In an interview that was published in the latest Radio Times magazine, Sands talked about how he finds "solace" and "self-affirmation" in the "dangerous" sport, as reported by Variety.
"If you can deal with dangerous mountains, you can certainly deal with life as an actor — the two are quite complementary," Sands said to Radio Times.
"If you don't really have the desire, the focus for climbing a route, if you're not absolutely committed, it becomes much more dangerous and it's a much more deflating experience," the actor added.
Sands also admitted in the Radio Times interview — which took place six months before his remains were discovered — that he, too, has "been confronted with human remains" while in the mountains, per Variety.
"I've found spooky things on mountains, when you know you're in a place where many people have lost their lives, whether it be on the Eiger or in the Andes," Sands said. "It's not necessarily supernatural, it's possibly all too natural — what I would call hypernatural. You're in the presence of big nature and big nature is revealing itself in all its power."
Sands was an avid hiker and mountaineer. In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, the actor shared that he had once been caught in a storm with three other climbers in the Andes Mountains back in the '90s.
"We were all in a very bad way. Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky," Sands told the Guardian.
Despite his age, the actor said in the Radio Times interview that he was reluctant to give up his hobby even as many of his friends retired from the sport, per Variety.
"Pals I used to climb with have stopped going to the mountains, partly because they find, with climate change, the rock faces have become much more unstable, partly, it's age," Sands said.
Sands, known for his role in "A Room With a View," was last seen hiking in the Baldy Bowl area of Mount Baldy in mid-January, Insider previously reported. He was 65.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced in late June that some hikers found human remains on a trail near Mount Baldy, which were subsequently identified as Sands'.