Bad weather hampering attempts to rescue 135 Pakistani avalanche victims A high-altitude search and rescue specialist team arrived from the US on Sunday but was stranded in the capital Islamabad on Monday as bad weather closed in on the Siachen glacier, a frozen corner of Kashmir where Pakistani and Indian troops face off against each other. There now seems little chance that any of the soldiers and 11 civilians will be found alive. They were buried beneath tons of rock, snow and ice at their mountain headquarters, some 16,000ft above sea level, on Saturday morning. Attempts to ferry heavy equipment were also stalled by weather, with flights to the region cancelled. Meanwhile, mountain rescue team from Switzerland and Germany were due to arrive in Islamabad on Monday evening. A spokesman for the US embassy said rescuers were being briefed by the Pakistan military "They are on standby and are waiting for a window, both operational and climatic," he said. India and Pakistan fought over Siachen in 1987 but guns on the glacier have fallen silent since a slow-moving peace process was launched in 2004. Thousands of soldiers remain deployed across valleys and passes, even though the battleground holds little strategic value.