Rescue workers ended their search Tuesday afternoon for two climbers caught in an avalanche Saturday on 2,812-meter Mount Nukedo in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture.

The search will not be resumed Wednesday because of bad weather, local police said, adding they will try to gather information about the missing pair from other climbers.

Hampered by bad weather, Sunday's search was forced to end early and Monday's search failed to find the two, local police said.

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.

On Tuesday morning, some 20 rescue workers and members of a mountaineering club Kuwahara and Tsukada belong to resumed their search, pushing 3-meter-long sticks into a thick layer of snow near the accident site.

Kuwahara and Tsukada were hit soon after they left their base camp to confirm the route to the peak.

The avalanche had a width of about 60 meters and left snow 3 to 4 meters in depth.

Separate from the avalanche, some other accidents occurred on mountains in Gifu and Nagano prefectures in the past few days.

On Mount Nishihotaka in Gifu Prefecture, Ryoko Nishikawa, a 36-year-old junior high school teacher from Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, was rescued by helicopter Monday morning after she fell on a slope Sunday, sustaining severe thigh injuries, police said.