Indian paramilitary soldiers have reached the bodies of seven of eight members from a team of international climbers, including an Australian, believed killed on a notoriously dangerous Himalayan mountain.
An administrator of Uttarakhand state, Vijay Jogdande, said the soldiers reached the bodies on Sunday but they had yet to be identified.
The bodies will now be brought from where they were found at an altitude of more than 5000 metres to the base camp.
Sydney mountaineer Ruth McCance is presumed dead on Nanda Devi East along with British team leader Martin Moran, three other UK climbers, two men from the United States and an Indian liaison officer.
Moran's Scotland-based company said contact with the team was lost on May 26 following an avalanche. Officials said they were all presumed dead.
Five bodies believed to be from the missing team were spotted by air nearly two weeks ago.
Ground expeditions by the Indian paramilitary forces and the Indian Mountaineering Foundation were launched after helicopter missions failed to reach the area because of bad weather.
The search for the missing eighth mountaineer will continue, Jogdande said.
HS Chauhan, president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, said authorities would decide on an air evacuation of the bodies depending on weather conditions.
Ground expeditions also are in the area for the task.
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