More sections of a rope used by missing South Korean mountaineers have been found.

Veteran mountaineer Park Young-seok has gone missing along with two fellow climbers while heading for a summit on the south face of Annapurna in the Himalayas.

A 19-member rescue team searched a slope area Friday and found sections of a rope, which is called "seil" in climbing lingo, near an area where an avalanche occurred. The rope used by Park was found coiled in a circle.

But the team says there were no other traces of the missing crew and it was difficult to conduct the search using alpine probes due to stiff snow piles.

An official says it appears Park and the two members gave up their ascent due to severe rockslides and they were heading down when the avalanche occurred at about the 58-hundred meter point.

Twelve days have passed since contact with Park was lost on October 18th. The search continues but officials are planning to discuss ending their search with family members of the missing.