Indian air force pilots have spotted five bodies in the Himalayas near the border with China and Nepal while searching for eight climbers, including an Australian woman, who went missing in an avalanche while trying to scale India's second-highest mountain.

Dr Vijay Kumar Jogdande, a civil administrator in the northern state of Uttarakhand, said the bodies were identified using high-resolution photographs taken from a military helicopter on Monday.

The search operation was suspended for the day because of heavy snowfall and high winds and will resume on Tuesday to try to find the other three mountaineers.

Authorities fear the three may have been buried in an avalanche that struck the section of the mountain where the group was climbing earlier this week.

Government officials are now working with the Indian army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police on how to retrieve the bodies from a summit on Nanda Devi East, a twin peak of Nanda Devi, India's second-highest mountain.

They are considering sending a mountaineering team to the site where the bodies were spotted, which is at an altitude of 5,000 metres (16,404 feet).

"Both the terrain and the weather make safety a real issue," Jogdande said.

"There is always a fear that people going for the rescue may get stuck there."

The climbing team, led by British climber Martin Moran, began its ascent of the previously unclimbed 6,477-metre (21,250-feet) peak on Nanda Devi East, on May 13.

It included four Britons, two Americans, Australian Ruth McCance of Sydney and an Indian liaison officer.

The team was last in touch by radio with the base camp on May 26, according to four members of the expedition who had stayed behind due to heavy snowfall and who were rescued on Sunday.

The four-member team at base camp, all British nationals, was led by 44-year-old Mark Thomas. The other three members were Zachary Quain, 32, Kate Armstrong, 39, and Ian Wade, 45.

Amit Chowdhary, spokesman for the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, confirmed said the missing climbers' location was known up to May 26.

Chowdhary said when the Thomas-led team was no longer receiving radio updates Thomas went to look for the climbers.

It was not immediately clear why Moran chose to summit the unclimbed peak.

India does not allow climbers on the Nanda Devi peak.

They are allowed only onto its slightly lower twin Nanda Devi East, which together stand in the centre of a ring of peaks.

Still, climbers describe it as diabolically difficult. It's avalanche-prone and has frightening terrain with razor-thin edges and 914-metre (3,000-foot) plunges.

"In comparison with Nanda Devi East, Everest is a picnic," Kohli said.

"Those who climb Everest wouldn't even be able to place a foot on it. Only the most technically competent can attempt it."