Julian Sands: Hikers Who Found His Body Describe Chilling Scene

The hikers who stumbled across actor Julian Sands' remains are opening up to The Los Angeles Times about the chilling discovery.

Sands, 65, went missing in January while hiking in California's Mount Baldy area in extreme weather conditions. He was found five months later by chance.

Bill Dwyer, one of the hikers who discovered the remains, described the experience as "surreal."

Dwyer and his group found a boot, another boot, poles, and finally what was unmistakably an array of human bones.

The hikers knew they had found Sands when they looked in "a pile of dark winter clothes" to find an ID with Sands pictured on it.

As for the clothing, one of the hikers said Sands "was dressed like a ninja."

Sands' boots reportedly had microspikes, which are used for shallow snow on trails, which the hiker noted were "just the wrong tools for the job at hand."

Sands' cellphone was also nearby in the Goode Canyon location, a place where there is no reception. Instead, the hikers used Garmin InReach, a satellite messaging device, to alert authorities, who arrived within minutes.

Donna Newlin, who had been on the search-and-rescue team when Sands first went missing, said the searchers had probably missed his remains by a matter of several hundred feet.

Sands was declared dead once his remains were positively IDed, but his exact cause of death remains a mystery.