Thank you Skyvask for making the first guide. I just wanted to add a couple other pieces of tech/optimization that I think are noteworthy.

If Kenai (big bear) is climbing up a ledge and you switch bears, he will continue to climb up while you advance with Koda. This can be important for decreasing downtime in the run. Anytime Kenai is forced to climb up a ledge, switch to Koda and keep moving then switch back when you need to or are forced to by the end-of-level.

By that same logic, if one bear is falling or sliding across the ice, switching bears will NOT interrupt what the previous bear was doing. So for instance, in Ice Cave 2's Red totem stage, the very end of the level is an ice platform with a small slope that takes you to the end of the level. By swapping bears once you pass the slope you can save a few seconds since the original bear will keep sliding into the goal.

You can get higher speeds than normal when sliding on ICE, down a SLOPE, or down a WATERFALL. It's important to take advantage of that whenever possible by jumping to maintain that speed. Additionally, it's possible to maintain the speed even further with a bunnyhop (jumping as soon as you hit the ground). I've only been able to bunnyhop from ice platforms as Kenai, but it should work from other surfaces and with Koda. However the window to bunnyhop and maintain momentum is small (a 1-2 frame window by my guess). But since a regular jump is the same speed as running, you should always go for it for a free time save if you get lucky.

tldr:

• swap to Koda whenever Kenai has to climb up a ledge
• swap bears if one of them is sliding into the goal anyway
• always jump from ice and downward slopes when possible. Go for a bunnyhop as well