The bodies of 11 climbers were recovered but attempts to move them were hindered by Monday's renewed eruption, West Sumatra's Search and Rescue Agency head Abdul Malik said on Tuesday.
The search operation would resume once conditions improved.
A video released by the agency showed rescuers evacuating an injured climber on a stretcher off the mountain and into a waiting ambulance to be taken to hospital.
Marapi initially erupted on Sunday spewing clouds of hot ash.
Eight of the climbers rescued were rushed to hospital suffering a variety of injuries. (AP PHOTO)
The volcano has stayed at the third-highest of four alert levels since 2011, indicating above-normal volcanic activity, prohibiting climbers and villagers within three kilometres of the peak.
"This means that there should be no climbing to the peak," Hendra Gunawan, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, said.
He said climbers were only allowed below the danger zone, "but sometimes many of them broke the rules to fulfil their satisfaction to climb further".
About 75 climbers had started up the nearly 2900m mountain on Saturday and became stranded.
Authorities rescued 52, including three on Monday. Eight of those rescued Sunday were rushed to hospital with burns and one suffered a broken limb.
All of the climbers had registered at two command posts or online through West Sumatra's conservation agency.
Sunday's Mount Marapi eruption blanketed nearby towns with volcanic debris. (AP PHOTO)
But local search and rescue official Hari Agustian said the total number of people stranded could not be confirmed with some possibly taking illegal routes up the mountain.
Marapi spewed thick columns of ash as high as 3000m in Sunday's eruption and hot ash clouds spread for several miles.
Nearby villages and towns were blanketed by tons of volcanic debris. Volcanic dust and rain smeared the faces and hair of evacuated climbers, according to a video on social media.
Falling ash blanketed several villages and blocked sunlight, and authorities distributed masks while urging residents to wear eyeglasses to protect them from volcanic ash.
About 1400 people live on Marapi's slopes in Rubai and Gobah Cumantiang, the nearest villages about five kilometres from the peak.
Gunawan said the eruption was not preceded by a significant increase in volcanic earthquakes.
"This shows that the eruption process is taking place quickly and the centre of pressure is very shallow, around the peak," he said.
"Marapi eruptions are always sudden and difficult to detect using equipment because the source is near the surface."
Marapi has been active since a January eruption that caused no casualties.
It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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