LOS ANGELES – American authorities in Southern California recovered human remains on Saturday near the mountain where search crews have been looking for 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 10am local time on Saturday by hikers who had found human remains in the Mount Baldy wilderness, more than 64km north-east 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 Sands.

Sands, 65, went hiking alone on a trail on Mount Baldy. On hiking websites, the popular trek is described as challenging and strenuous.

The actor has appeared in more than 150 films and television shows, and is best known for the role of George Emerson in the Oscar-nominated film A Room With A View (1985).

The film, an adaptation of English writer 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 Sands last week and said parts of the mountain still could not be reached because of “extreme alpine conditions”, including steep terrain and ravines covered in more than 3m of ice and snow.

On June 17, more than 80 people helped search for Sands. 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 the actor and eight other unrelated search-and-rescue missions in the Mount Baldy area since January, the department said.

After 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.

Last Wednesday, Sands’ 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,” they said in a statement.

In several interviews, Sands talked about his fondness for hiking and the mountains.

In a 2020 interview with Thrive Global, a company started by entrepreneur Arianna Huffington that provides behaviour change technology, Sands said he had spent time in mountain ranges in North America and Europe.

He added that people who did not climb mountains assumed it was about a “great heroic sprint” to the summit and ego.

“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.” NYTIMES