The sun shone after two days of heavy rain that grounded flights, letting dozens of choppers scour the mountains where aid workers warn thousands could die within days without food, tents and blankets.
"The main thing that has changed in the last 24 hours is that it seems to be more under control, as far as this situation can be," said Alain Pasche, the UN co-ordination chief in Muzaffarabad.
"I'm used to working in war zones and this reminds me of a war zone," said Zia Alvi, a doctor with British-based Doctors Overseas Charity.
Major Farooq Nasir, the army spokesman in Muzaffarabad, said the clear skies permitted around 80 air sorties on Monday, one of the highest since the earthquake tore apart entire villages on October 8.
"We are pushing into far-flung locations so soldiers are able to carry goods up in the mountain,"
he said. A crucial road from Muzaffarabad into the devastated Jhelum Valley was reopened on Monday as bulldozers cleared a massive landslide blocking the way to Ghari Dupatta, which had been supplied only by air.
Balakot received its first trucks on Monday from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) bringing in badly needed wheat and beans for 700 people.
But in a sign of how much relief work remains to be done, Mia Turner, a WFP spokeswoman, said that about 600 of the 900 villages in the Balakot area remain inaccessible.
"We have no food, no tents, no blankets. We sleep in the open at night," said Zahoor Ahmed, 34, a resident of Dhani which is now no more than a few tents made from blankets and plastic. "We are suffering."
And the clear skies also brought misery of a different sort to residents, with temperatures dropping overnight to near freezing point in Balakot and mountain villages in Azad Kashmir.
Relief groups say thousands of earthquake survivors face hypothermia, diarrhea and other diseases unless they immediately get bedding and shelter.
A Red Cross worker said a team reached the village of Shikar, south-east of Muzaffarabad, where they found that five people who could have been saved had died just the day before.
"The urgent medical phase is now winding down. Structures are being put in place on the ground," said Olivier Moeckli of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Some signs of life were returning to Muzaffarabad, where dozens more shops reopened including a bakery, a barber and grocery stores.
"The shop is all I have left and it's open because I have to make money," said shopkeeper Saqib Awan, whose sister died in the earthquake. "But I don't know if we have any future."