Indian Air Force helicopters on Wednesday remained unable to retrieve the bodies of five mountaineers sighted on an unscaled peak near the Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand two days before, ANI reported. Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande said the helicopters returned to base after three attempts, due to air turbulence, the height and geography of the terrain.

Jogdande said the operations will begin again with a different plan. “A team will be landed by a helicopter at a higher location where these problems don’t arise,” he said. “The team will be given a time of three to four days to get acclimatised to weather and height. Then they will start the search operation keeping in mind their safety.”

“Besides the aerial operation, the administration will also try to reach the spot by the land route tomorrow to retrieve the bodies,” the magistrate said, according to PTI. “We are being joined by 35 State Disaster Response Force men tonight who will be divided into two groups. One will be sent to the spot by land route while the other will try to reach the spot by air.”

Jogdande said it is likely that the bodies will be covered with snow due to continuous snowfall in the region, making operations harder. Due to the tough terrain, the rescue operations could last over a week, the magistrate added.

The five mountaineers were part of an eight-member team led by experienced mountaineer Martin Moran. It included John McLaren, Richard Payne and Rupert Havel – all from the United Kingdom – apart from Ruth Macrain from Australia, Anthony Sudecam and Rachel Bimmel from the United States, and liaison officer Chetan Pandey. However, it is not clear whose bodies were spotted.

The air search was conducted on the basis of clues provided by four British mountaineers, who were rescued on Sunday from a base camp of Nanda Devi.