Julian Sands, the British actor found dead in the California mountains, warned in his last UK interview that “the rock faces have become more unstable”.
The 65-year-old’s body was found in the wilderness near Mount Baldy in California last Saturday, some six months after he went missing.
Speaking to Radio Times last year, in what would become his final UK interview, the star said: “Pals I used to climb with have stopped going to the mountains".
He said this was “partly because they find, with climate change, the rock faces have become much more unstable,” but also “partly, it’s age”.
He told the magazine: “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," he said.
“Finding folk whose company I enjoy in such stressful and intimate conditions is not easy."
He added he was aware of the risks of mountaineering and that he was frequently in places in the mountains where people had lost their lives in the past.
He had been speaking to the publication to promote The Willows, a BBC radio drama.
The actor, best known for the 1985 film A Room With A View, was reported missing from a solo trip in the San Gabriel mountains on January 13.
Bad weather hampered the efforts of rescuers as they tried to find Sands, preventing ground searches for long periods.
The actor was a keen climber and described the activity as “solace and a sort of existentialist self-negation, but equally a self-affirmation”.
“If you can deal with dangerous mountains, you can certainly deal with life as an actor – the two are quite complementary,” he said.
Sands was considered an experienced and competent mountaineer by his friends, with his hiking partner and fellow actor Kevin Ryan previously saying that he was “the most advanced hiker I know”.
