Efforts to recover the bodies of climbers killed in last week's deadly avalanche on Pakistan's Broad Peak suffered another setback on Tuesday as poor weather grounded rescue helicopters and avalanche danger prevented a ground team from reaching the recovery site.

The recovery of the bodies, including that of celebrated Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, known as Nimsdai, by long-line helicopter appeared impossible for a second consecutive day after deteriorating weather prevented aircraft from reaching the mountain.

"Helicopter, which was scheduled to come, did not come yesterday. Today there is no possibility of flight as well," Nepali mountaineer Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, known as Mingma G, told Everest Chronicle.

With aerial recovery suspended, the ground team attempted an early-morning climb but was also forced to abandon the effort because of unstable snow conditions and the risk of fresh avalanches, leaving the bodies stranded high on the world's 12th-highest mountain.

Mingma G is leading the recovery effort, joined by Pakistani climber Sirbaz Khan.

Earlier in the day, Irfan Arshad Khan, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, had expressed hope that the ground team would be able to retrieve at least one body.

"The ground team is making all-out efforts," he told Everest Chronicle.

The mission has become increasingly dangerous after fresh avalanches swept across the recovery route on Monday, forcing rescuers to reconsider Tuesday operations.

With weather failing to improve, the ground team also did not attempt the climb to the recovery site on Tuesday because of avalanche danger.

The team had planned to retrieve the body of Nepali climber Nima Sherpa first after several bodies that had been brought down from higher on the mountain were swept away by another avalanche and became stranded at around 5,000 metres on the Concordia side of Broad Peak on Monday.

Rescuers say unstable snow conditions and continuing avalanche danger remain the biggest obstacles to the operation.

The recovery mission now rests largely with Mingma G's team after members of Seven Summit Treks departed the base camp, leaving a small group of Nepali and Pakistani climbers to continue the effort.

"There are rescuers from Pakistan as well," Mingma David Sherpa, co-owner of Elite Exped, Purja's expedition company, told Everest Chronicle. He is also in Pakistan.

Despite the risks, Mingma G has vowed to bring the victims home.

"My loving brothers Kilu, Wang and Nims. We will take you back home to see families," he wrote on Instagram two days earlier.

Mingma G and Purja forged a close partnership in high-altitude mountaineering, completing the historic first winter ascent of K2 together in 2021. In 2024, Mingma G completed all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks without supplementary oxygen, an achievement closely associated with Purja's support and friendship.

On Sunday, a search-and-recovery team led by Mingma G recovered four bodies from around 5,700 metres, including that of Purja.

The bodies of Kili Pemba Sherpa and Gyalu Sherpa have since been brought down to base camp, while three more bodies remain stranded on a steep, avalanche-prone slope.

The body of Nawang Thindhu Sherpa has yet to be recovered because of the extreme danger of the terrain. Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi remains missing.

Earlier, the bodies of Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy and Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung, known as Yukta, along with partial remains of American climber Mallory Geis, were airlifted to Skardu.

A massive avalanche swept through Broad Peak last Thursday as climbers were making a summit push below Camp III, killing 10 mountaineers in one of the deadliest disasters in the Karakoram in recent years.