World adventurer and owner of Midwest Mountaineering Rod Johnson dies at 76

Traveling up to the summit of Mount McKinley, Rod Johnson had something unusual in his pack: liters of wine.

Johnson and his crew climbed to the peak more than 20,000 feet above sea level and celebrated with a swig before they went back down the Alaskan mountain, also known as Denali, said his longtime friend and business associate Rudi Hargesheimer.

“He drank it up there as a lark because he thought it was crazy and he wanted to do something different,” Hargesheimer said. “But climbing Mount McKinley is no easy feat; it was an adrenaline adventure.”

Johnson died Oct. 26 after an accident at his home, according to his daughter Natalie Li. He was 76 years old. He was known for his exploratory spirit and outdoor acumen, and for fostering and expanding the outdoor community through his store, Midwest Mountaineering.

He operated Midwest Mountaineering, which had more than 70 employees, for over 50 years before closing it in 2023.

Johnson lived by his store’s motto — “Ask us, we’ve been there” — and allowed employees to take weeks-long adventures with outdoor equipment offered to them at a steep discount, Hargesheimer said. Johnson also took employees on out-of-state trips on the company dime to try out new gear, Hargesheimer said.

“He was eccentric,” Hargesheimer said. “He did weird things that other people wouldn’t do.”

“We were a big group and we’d fill up the room we met in,” Hargesheimer said. “He would then stand up in the aisle, with a loaded backpack, and say ‘I’ve got brand new climbing gear,’ and he’d sell it right there to people.”

After college, Johnson decided to open up a physical location. He called the store “The Johnson Company” because his father had a business of the same name and he could use the same stationery for free, Hargesheimer said. Eventually Johnson landed on the name “Midwest Mountaineering.”

Employees frequently questioned Johnson’s marketing ideas, like offering coupons that could be exchanged at the store for $1 without a purchase, Hargesheimer said. That was wildly successful, attracting at one point 400 people in one day. Other ideas like the Outdoor Adventure Expo and Thrifty Outfitters, which sold sample gear at a discount above Midwest Mountaineering, became mainstays.

But other ventures, like a storefront in downtown St. Paul that sold “upscale fashionable outdoor clothing,” didn’t work out so well, and the store eventually closed, Hargesheimer said.

After Johnson married his wife, Sharon Johnson, in the early 2000s, the two went on adventures from Mount Kilimanjaro and Patagonia to New Zealand and the Alps.

“His [life] slogan was if everyone tried to make the world a better place, the world would be a better place,” she said. “Rod had a lot of energy, was very determined, was able to get what he went after, and he had a good heart.”

Johnson’s business experiments inspired former employee Steve Schreader, who opened Lake State Mountaineering in the North Loop neighborhood earlier this year. Schreader was taken by Johnson’s commitment to getting people outside and his generous spirit. Midwest Mountaineering’s profits were shared by the employees and 10% went to a charity picked out by staff or by customers (via jars by the register).

“There will be nobody else like Rod Johnson; he had fantastical ways of how to do things,” Schreader said.

Li remembered her first-grade class following her father’s journey kayaking the Nile in Africa. Her classmates were eager to talk to her about her dad’s adventure, but when he came back, she was terrified of him. In his time away he had grown a big, bushy beard.

“I was still little and I thought ‘Who is this man?’” she said. “I remember him talking about being chased by crocodiles and being robbed by people on the side of the road,” she said.

In contrast to the global adventures of his youth, Johnson spent the last few years at his cabin near Split Rock Lighthouse, enjoying the North Shore, and he frequently visited Li and his grandchildren in South Carolina.