"Nearly 7,500 pilgrims left for the holy cave from Nunwun base camp," state official Abdul Rouf told AFP by telephone from the village, which serves as base camp for the 50-kilometre (30-mile) trek.

A few thousand also left for the cave high in the Himalayas from a shorter route, northeast of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, he said, bringing the total number of pilgrims setting forth Sunday to some 13,000.

"The landslides have been cleared from the tracks and the weather is sunny," said Rouf from Nunwun, 100 kilometres south of Srinagar.

The suspension of the trek on its official start date of Saturday upset thousands of Hindu devotees who were anxious to see the ice form, worshipped as a symbol of the god of destruction Shiva, before it turns to water.