In 1881 the search began for a CPR route through the Selkirk Mountains. Major A.B. Rogers would discover Rogers Pass - which he penetrated both east and west before CPR would believe that the Selkirks were breachable. Construction began in 1885 - hundreds of lives would be lost as the railway struggled with new technology that might make the pass, well, passable. The avalanches that plague the region were their ever-constant enemy. By 1916 over 200 railway workers had died at Rogers Pass; Van Horne had become weary with the costs involved in keeping it open. The pass would be closed and a new, equally daunting task would be undertaken. The Connaught tunnel would become the new route and it required nothing less then burrowing right through the mountain.