Julian Sands loved climbing, but knew its risks; sadly he died while climbing in the mountains.

The late Julian Sands had a deep appreciation for nature, which was evident in his last interview with the Radio Times. Before his sad passing was confirmed last week, the British actor had opened up about the "hypernatural" experience of confronting human remains while mountain climbing.

Sands, who was known for his breakout role in the 1985 romantic period drama A Room With A View and his appearances in films such as Gothic, Warlock, and Arachnophobia, was an avid climber. He described the activity as “solace and a sort of existentialist self-negation, but equally a self-affirmation”, adding that it had helped him deal with life as an actor.

When asked about the dangers of climbing, Sands noted that he had experienced the chilling effect of finding human remains in certain mountains. He said: “You may be confronted with human remains and that can be chilling. 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. It can take us over a threshold of hypersensitivity into a realm of natural forces.”

The actor went on to say that his friends had stopped going to the mountains due to age and climate change, which had made certain rock faces more unstable. He said: “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. Finding folk whose company I enjoy in such stressful and intimate conditions is not easy. The thing about climbing is, you’re always making plans and looking at routes – maybe you end up getting to 5% of all the things you plan to do.”

Unfortunately, the search for Sands had been unsuccessful until his remains were found by civilian hikers last month. He is survived by his wife Evgenia Citkowitz. His passion for nature and mountain climbing will surely be missed by his friends and family.

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