The Mountain Operations Instructor's Coin

Please Note : To maintain the credibility and preserve the symbolism of the coin, only qualified Canadian Mountain Operations Instructors will be able to purchase it. Only one coin will be issued to an individual. We will require all available information about the course you graduated including but not limited to: dates, location, home unit, and course serial. To ease the process, you can email us a copy of your course report or certificate (a picture will suffice as long as information is visible).

Bronco Lane and Brummie Stokes; Two British SAS men who had summited Mount Everest in 1976. Rudy Kronenbitter; a renowned Alpinist residing in the Banff/Canmore corridor. Frank Kozina; Frank Gratton; Ed Witt; Frank MacNeil; Scotty Collins; Hubert Martineau; Jim Soucey; Bob Hodgson; Hugh McReynolds.

They kicked the steps for our rope teams in the years to follow. Legends, some living and some not, these are the names we owe our lineage to. In time there will be other names and tales which will follow. What they developed is one of the most mentally, intellectually, and physically demanding, while also being the longest specialist skill qualification in the Canadian Army to obtain.

Numbering less than 500 ever qualified since inception, this coin represents us both as the individual, and as a unified collective.
What is being offered here is the only centrally issued, serialized, and recorded coin available to all Canadian Armed Forces Mountain Operations Instructors. As no specialist skill badge is currently available upon obtaining the qualification, this is now available for MOI’s to represent their unique and proud tradecraft. Upon successful completion of the qualification, a Mountain Instructor may be permitted to receive this coin. There is a coin allocated for each one of us, with a coin number registered to your name, in yearly succession of qualification; either living or deceased. The end state is for each MOI to be in possession of their coin- and if they are no long with us, to ensure it finds its way to their legacy.

The coin displays a Mountain Operator conducting a successful self-arrest in the Canadian Alpine. This is encircled by the “Mountain Operations Canada” and maple leafs found on the Mountain Operations Canada Centre of Excellence Rondelle. Flipping the coin, the Mountain Operations Instructor qualification logo. The coin measures 38mm in diameter, 3mm thick and is in Die struck cartridge brass –Antique bronze patina 24kt gold detailing.