About six months have passed since actor Julian Sands was last seen, but the search continues. TMZ said that about 80 people got together on Saturday to look for Sands in the San Antonio Canyon, where he went missing in January while hiking. Sands went hiking on Mount Baldy and never came back.
The San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department led the search on Saturday, which included citizen volunteers, paid search-and-rescue teams, and police. The department said that they did not find anything over the weekend, but they will keep looking in a smaller way. Their search for Sands has included using drones and planes to look for him from above. However, they did say that some parts of the area were in such bad shape that they couldn’t be reached at all.
Rescue teams usually try harder to find people in situations like this in the summer, when the snow should be at its lowest. But it rained a lot more than usual in the California mountains last year, and many peaks still have more snow and ice than normal. This has been a big worry for hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail who have to go through the Sierra mountain range.
The sheriff’s office said that they have looked for Sands eight times, with the help of nearly 500 hours of volunteer time and several aerial runs. Some of Sands’ family members told TMZ that they have already said their goodbyes, but the case of him being lost is still open. Police said that searches will keep going, but not as much as before.
Mount Baldy is near the line between Los Angeles County and San Bernadino County. It is in the Angeles National Forest. It is a popular place to go climbing because you can reach almost 4,200 feet above sea level and see the San Gabriel Mountains and other nearby features. Sands was thought to be on the famous Baldy Bowl Trail, which is 4.5 miles long and goes up steeply to the highest point in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Guardian said that Sands was 65 when he went missing in the mountains, but he had done a lot of hiking and mountaineering before. At the time, the area was hit by bad weather in the first few days after he went missing. This could have made finding his trail harder and slowed the search. Investigators looked in the area where they thought Sands had been hiking and found signs of avalanches.
Sands is best known for his movies from the 1980s and 1990s, like A Room with a View, Naked Lunch, and Warlock. He was born in England. In more recent years, he has made movies like Seneca: On the Origin of Earthquakes and The Piper. IMDb says that Sands has three more projects that have been shot and are in post-production. Fans keep hoping for the best as they try to find Sands.