The authorities in Southern California recovered human remains on Saturday near the mountain where search crews have been looking for the British actor Julian Sands, who was reported missing in January.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that it had been contacted around 10 a.m. local time on Saturday by hikers who had found human remains in the Mount Baldy wilderness, which is more than 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
The remains were brought to the coroner’s office and were expected to be identified this week, the department said.
Dangerous conditions, including a series of severe storms in the winter and lingering ice and snow in June, have complicated search efforts for Mr. Sands.
Mr. Sands, 65, of North Hollywood, went hiking alone on a trail on Mount Baldy. On hiking websites, the popular trek is described as challenging and strenuous.
Mr. Sands has appeared in more than 150 films and television shows, including his best-known role starring as George Emerson in the Oscar-nominated 1986 film “A Room With a View.”
The film, an adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel, often makes lists as one of the best British films of all time.
The sheriff’s department provided an update on the search for Mr. Sands last week and said that parts of the mountain still could not be reached because of “extreme alpine conditions,” including steep terrain and ravines covered in more than 10 feet of ice and snow.
On June 17, more than 80 people helped search for him. Two helicopters and drone crews were used to check areas inaccessible to searchers on the ground, the sheriff’s department said.
There have been eight searches for Mr. Sands and eight other unrelated search-and-rescue missions in the Mount Baldy area since January, the department said.
After Mr. Sands was reported missing, the department warned hikers in January that storms in Southern California were creating dangerous conditions in the mountains.
The department said it had responded to 14 rescue missions for lost, stranded and injured hikers on Mount Baldy and in the surrounding area in a four-week period ending on Jan. 18. Two of the hikers did not survive after falling and hurting themselves.
On Wednesday, Mr. Sands’s family thanked the search teams.
“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” his family said in a statement.
In several interviews, Mr. Sands talked about his fondness for hiking and the mountains.
In a 2020 interview with Thrive Global, a company started by Arianna Huffington that provides behavior change technology, Mr. Sands said that he had spent time in mountain ranges in North America and Europe.
Mr. Sands said that people who did not climb mountains assumed it was about a “great heroic sprint” to the summit and ego.
“But actually, it’s the reverse,” he said. “It’s about supplication and sacrifice and humility, when you go to these mountains. It’s not so much a celebration of oneself, but the eradication of one’s self-consciousness. And so on these walks you lose yourself, you become a vessel of energy in harmony, hopefully with your environment.”
