- The discovery of Rogers Pass solved the major problem in getting a rail line through the Selkirk Mountains - a larger problem than the pass through the Rockies. After the CPR built the Connaught Tunnel under Mount Macdonald in 1916 the summit of the pass was unused until the building of the Trans Canada Highway which like it had done in Kicking Horse Pass followed the old rail line bed and made use of the avalanche snowsheds the rail track had used.