Julian Sands Had Spoken About ‘Dangerous’ Mountain Climbing in His Last Interview

Julian Sands, the British actor who was confirmed dead last week after going missing during a mountain hike, once spoke about dangerous mountain climbing in an interview.

In his last U.K. interview with the Radio Time, conducted six months before he was discovered, Sands described climbing as solace and a sort of existentialist self-negation, but equally a self-affirmation, adding if you can deal with dangerous mountains, you can certainly deal with life as an actor the two are quite complementary.

The interview is published in the latest issue of the Radio Times. Sands was reported missing near Mt. Baldy in Southern California on Jan. 13. He was 65. The actor, who pivoted from the romantic lead in A Room With a View to playing sinister characters in films like Warlock, had gone hiking in the snow-covered Baldy Bowl area, about 45 miles east of Los Angeles. He was an experienced mountaineer, but conditions in the mountains had been treacherous, with the potential of avalanches.

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, its age, Sands said during the interview. If you dont really have the desire, the focus for climbing a route, if youre not absolutely committed, it becomes much more dangerous and its a much more deflating experience.

Sands also said in the interview: Ive found spooky things on mountains, when you know youre in a place where many people have lost their lives, whether it be on the Eiger or in the Andes. You may be confronted with human remains and that can be chilling. Its not necessarily supernatural, its possibly all too natural what I would call hypernatural. Youre in the presence of big nature and big nature is revealing itself in all its power. It can take us over a threshold of hypersensitivity into a realm of natural forces.