Rogers blindly believed the pass presented no special engineering difficulties. By May 1883, the westward railhead had only reached Medicine Hat, still leaving time to find an alternative to the equally problematic Kicking Horse Pass. Moberly advocated Howse Pass. During the time it took to determine a practicable Kicking Horse/Selkirks route, the railhead had advanced up the Bow Valley making it too late to use Howse, which required an access from the North Saskatchewan River Valley.