The View From the Top

“The world would be a better place if we all went climbing,” Goose Kearse asserts as he continued carefully inspecting a climbing harness @mistymountainthreadworks global headquarters. Four decades ago, this process looked quite different when Misty Mountain founder, Woody Keen, designed and constructed harnesses out of his garage. In high school, Woody took Goose for a day of rigorous climbing at Table Rock where Woody taught him how to handle steep sections of rock and seemingly unclimbable routes. To Goose, as a blossoming climber, this was nirvana. After that, the rest is history. Over the years, after working and living in Southeast Asia, Goose decided to make the permanent move back to the WNC mountains, eventually becoming president and sole owner of the company. Misty Mountain has come a long way from making harnesses for friends and family, to designing unique kits specially for Army Special Forces. Since 1990, this international organization has lived out in the boonies of Valle Crucis in a building previously occupied by a kayak factory. In fact, to reach the building, you have to drive over a low level bridge, curve alongside the river, and when you get to the fork in the road, look for that orange Misty Mountain glow. “We like it out here,” Goose grins, referring to the remote location. “Only people with a purpose come to see us. It’s not like you can drive by and think about stopping in.” With North Carolina being home to “some of the finest rock” in the world, Woody and Goose knew this was the perfect place for climbers to ascend mountain tops together. But the location isn’t what makes Misty Mountain Threadworks all that it is. It’s the hearts and minds of the climber tribe that keep Misty operating on a daily basis. From the sewing machine madness maze upstairs to “The Chute” that allows employees to drop finished harness down to the product testing lab for inspection, headquarters is 7,000 square feet full of hard work and friendly faces. “Not everybody is a climber, but we’re all family,” Goose says. “And we all understand that climbing is a metaphor for life, just try to get as high as you can without getting killed.”