Rescue workers were forced by bad weather Sunday afternoon to halt their search for two climbers engulfed by an avalanche on 2,812-meter Mount Nukedo in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture.
Police said the search would resume Monday morning.
Yoshihito Kuwahara, 48, and Masayoshi Tsukada, 39, both from Shizuoka, were hit by the avalanche at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the 1,500-meter elevation, police said.
Although the sky was clear at the time, snow had fallen in the area through Friday, the police said.
Kuwahara and Tsukada were in a party with two other climbers from the same mountaineering club. Kuwahara and Tsukada were hit shortly after they left the base camp to confirm the route to the peak, the police said.
Naomi Oda, 54, who was at the camp, said he saw Kuwahara and Tsukada being engulfed by the avalanche.
"After hearing a ground-shaking big noise, I saw the two running on a slope. And the avalanche was following several hundred meters behind," Oda said.
Sunday's search found that the avalanche had a width of about 60 meters and left snow 3 to 4 meters in depth.