Russ Kipp vividly remembers his first hunting trips at age 12. “I remember getting lost . . . a lot,” he says with a laugh.

Like many Montanans, Kipp’s exposure to the wild started early. When he was 6 years old his father and grandfather took him fishing. He attended hunter safety classes at age 10.

“I learned how to carry guns in the woods,” says Kipp. “By the time I was 12, I was ready to hunt.

Russ and Karen Kipp opened Montana High Country Tours in 1979 and have built it into a respected and popular business, offering a year-round guide service for fishing, hunting, horseback riding and snowmobiling.

“Our landscape is really unique,” says Kipp, who is also the vice president of Montana Outfitters & Guides Association and serves on the Beaverhead Watershed Committee. “There’s antelope in the front yard and moose, elk, bears and mountain goats all around us.”

Kipp’s clients are treated to both thick forests and windswept sagebrush ridges in southwest Montana. The scenic surroundings are one of the many reasons he appreciates his job.

“I love hunting and fishing and people,” Kipp says. “Return clientele are essential to success. Long-lasting friendships grow, and we have people who have been coming back for 25 years.”

Bill Kurtz of Texas first hunted with Kipp in 1988. “I got to spend a whole week with that knucklehead, and we had a blast,” says Kurtz. “I have never been around a person so passionate for his clients to have a successful hunt.”

Part of that passion springs from Kipp’s commitment to conserving wildlife habitat. “I think we’re fortunate to make our living hunting and fishing,” he says. “We should give back to organizations that help maintain the outdoors for future generations.”

Kipp became an outfitter member of the Elk Foundation in 1991, and he’s donated 33 hunts and high-country trips, bringing in more than $58,000 for the foundation’s conservation work.

“If the Elk Foundation’s mission is fulfilled there will always be elk and other wildlife for future generations,” Kipp says. “There are more elk now than when I was growing up. Give back more than you take and pass it on are important codes to live by.”

Kristy Bosworth, donations manager at the Elk Foundation, attests to Kipp’s generosity. “He bailed me out of a really bad situation,” she says.

Three years ago a member bought a hunting trip at Elk Camp. When he drove to Montana from Louisiana for his hunt, the outfitter said he couldn’t take him.

“He didn’t want his money back,” Bosworth says. “He wanted to go hunting. It was in the middle of hunting season, and the outfitters are really booked. I panicked and called Russ, who said he’d fit him in.”

The hunter killed a six-point elk and four-point mule deer, Kipp says.

“I felt good about helping the Elk Foundation and the guy,” he says. “He’s since come back with his family.”

These days Kipp doesn’t get lost like he did as a child, but with a livelihood based on the fruits of elk country, he hopes he won’t find his way out of the woods for many years to come. Visit us at www.mhct.com

—Dylan Laslovich, Bugle Intern