On Monday an emergency beacon led crews to Mr Kerr’s body - buried under more than four metres of snow in steep terrain - about 400 metres downhill from Eskdale Spur and 500 metres from their last campsite at Michell’s Hut. Rescue teams, coordinated by Police Search and Rescue, were able to use helicopters to airlift Mr Kerr’s body off the mountain to the nearby operational base of Mount Beauty on Monday afternoon. But constant rainfall, icy winds and heavy cloud cover meant the search continued without the assistance of helicopters on Tuesday. Volunteers and professional search and rescue workers from Victoria Police and the State Emergency Service began the difficult task of retrieving Mr Buckland’s body shortly after it was discovered at 10.30am. A team of 14 recovery specialists, including seven from Victoria Police, two SES volunteers and five volunteers from the Birkenbeiner Nordic Ski Club's search and rescue arm, left Mount Beauty on Tuesday afternoon.

The Birkenbeiners volunteers, based in Mount Beauty, have local knowledge of the area and are experienced at dealing with the challenging terrain. Mr Buckland had been buried beneath less than two metres of snow, about 60 metres uphill from where Mr Kerr was discovered 24 hours earlier, Inspector David Ryan said. “The effort to recover Martie Buckland is underway, but is not expected to be completed until about midnight,” a Victoria Police spokesman said. “They’ll work through the night, weather permitting.” Inspector Ryan said conditions on the mountain would make retrieving Mr Buckland incredibly difficult for already fatigued crews.

The first leg of the recovery, winching the body to the top of the ridge, could take eight hours, he said. “It has to go uphill, up to the ridge line and then back to Mitchell Hut," Inspector Ryan said. “It will be a lot of brute strength and ropes to slide the sled back up to the top and then it will have to be carried out.” He expected the crew to reach a carpark by midnight where Mr Buckland's body will then be driven to the foot of the mountain. But if conditions on the mountain further deteriorate the recovery may be called off with rescuers facing another two days of extreme weather on Wednesday and Thursday.

The families of both men are “obviously devastated", Inspector Ryan said. “Martie has got a wife and child who have obviously been held in limbo for a couple of days now and she’s holding up very well. She’s a very strong and courageous young lady.” Martie’s father-in-law, Frank, who has seen the conditions crews are working under firsthand, thanked the rescuers for their hard work. “We’d just like to thank police and rescuers for the amazing job that they’ve done,” he told Fairfax Media. The crews had started heading up to the search zone in 4WDs shortly before 8am on Tuesday. Strapped to their roof racks were long plastic sticks for deep snow probing around the area where Mr Kerr was discovered. Mr Buckland's distressed wife, Sally, spent about half an hour inside the Mount Beauty Police Station late on Tuesday morning, emerging in tears at about 10.45am. Mr Buckland and Mr Kerr had been well equipped and prepared for extreme conditions but had likely been caught by an avalanche, police said.

“I think this is just a really unfortunate incident that’s caught them out,” Inspector Ryan said. “We’ve got greater snowfall at the moment, a softer, a colder snow, which has potentially led to this avalanche occurring. “Avalanches occur off the top of Bogong all the time. The weight of snow will cause a cornice, an overhang of snow to let go above you and you can’t outrun it.”