When the thaw comes at the end of March in Pitchbala -- a tiny hamlet hidden in the valleys of Kohistan, or the land of mountains -- the father-of-three and his fellow villagers will finally be able to start rebuilding their homes.

The big question is: what happens next?

The October 8 disaster destroyed the rustic community's already shaky livelihoods and wiped out the roads to the outside world, while this year's harvest will barely allow them to survive.

"We are waiting for the spring to come and then we will rebuild," Gullamullah told AFP in the freezing, snowbound village, which lies 2,060 metres (6,750 feet) above sea level.

"But we will be unable to rebuild, to harvest and look after our families at the same time."

The 7.6-magnitude quake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province, and a huge international rescue mission is helping another 3.5 million who were left homeless.

In Pitchbala, villagers say 40 people died and 300 dwellings were destroyed. Those without houses have been living in tents, makeshift shelters or, if they are lucky, their neighbours' damp, smoke-filled wooden compounds.

A hardy, leathery-skinned mountain people known for their blood feuds and intense suspicion of outsiders -- all local women are hidden from visitors -- they have accepted help from aid agency "quake jumpers" flown in by choppers.

Yet they remain pessimistic.

"Many of us lost our animals, our mills were destroyed and so were the shelters, some of the crop was just lying outside in the rain. There is only one harvest this year because summers are short here," Gullamullah said.

The whole earthquake zone faces similar challenges if it is to reduce its dependence on international relief, said Michael Jones, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) country director for Pakistan, as he visited the village.

"We are going to start moving from the emergency phase to recovery operations in April or May and we have to combine that with reestablishing livelihoods. Otherwise there are going to be problems next year," Jones said.

-- Rebuilding lives --

Last week the WFP said it needed more than 80 million dollars to keep vital helicopters in the air for the rest of the year. It is currently feeding one million Pakistanis, a figure expected to drop to 800,000 by April.

Aid agencies are firstly looking at microcredit schemes to allow people to replace "seriously depleted" livestock levels and boost the local economy, Jones said.

This in turn is aimed at encouraging tens of thousands of people to leave their tented camps in the valleys in lower levels, where many fled as winter drew in a couple of months after the earthquake.

Material will also be brought to higher elevations to draw people back and seeds and agricultural tools will be distributed along with food aid.

Meanwhile a second tranche of government compensation worth 75,000 rupees (1,250 dollars) per family affected by the quake is due by mid-February. The first instalment of 25,000 rupees was given in November and the government has pledged a total of 175,000 rupees per family.

But Jones said the survivors must be helped to use the cash for rebuildling, not just subsistence. "In the first tranche they used 40 to 60 percent for food and basic needs. That worried us," Jones said.

So the United Nations is looking at looking at more innovative ways of helping survivors help themselves -- many of them with environmental advantages.

The International Organisation of Migration said it was employing people in spontaneous camps to make "gabions" -- mesh baskets filled with rubble and placed along roads and river banks to halt further landslides.

Women and disabled people will be hired first, it said.

The WFP said stone crushers and block building machines would be distributed so villagers can rebuild their houses. One machine also employs a family of 12.

Many new houses will be quake-proofed with features such as loose pegs between blocks to absorb movement and walls that fall outward.

Survivors will also be encouraged to grow saplings of cash crops like pine, apple and walnut along with their food crops.

The US Agency for International Development said last week it would distribute vouchers worth a total of one million dollars in the quake zone, further stimulating the economy.

Recovery still seems a long way off for many of the millions who are still lacking the basics four months after the quake flattened their villages and left huge fissures in the rust-coloured mountainsides.

"Many tents collapsed when the snows came in January. We need more tents and more blankets," survivor Mushtaq Shah told AFP in Balgran, a village in Kashmir's landslide-blocked Neelum Valley.

Some are still waiting for government funds.

"We want to rebuild in the spring but we have had no compensation yet," complained Saeed Mansoor, another Balgran resident. "What can we do?"

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