Even as a search operation to recover the bodies of two of the nine mountaineers killed on Saturday in an avalanche in Pithoragarh district in Uttaranchal continued, two more mountaineers went missing in Uttarkashi district in the state on Monday.

Arijit Banerjee and Tusharendu Kabi of Airit Mountaineering Federation went missing after summitting the Kedardom peak (6830 Mt).

A senior police officer said Indo-Tibetan Border Police teams have launched a search operation with a dozen local porters for the duo.

Banerjee and Kabi were part of a nine-member team from Kolkata. They were flagged off on September 5 to scale the Kedardom peak.

On September 17, the team successfully climbed the peak, but on its way back got trapped when a patch of snow suddenly cracked.

While seven members of the team returned to the base camp safely, Banerjee (35) and Kabi (22) are missing.