Alex and I met in 1999 at Philmont. I had heard quite a bit about him from Garrett who was on Rayado with Alex in '96. I had probably bumped into both of them because I was also at Philmont that year. Anyway, Alex and I were both Mountain Trek Rangers and hit it off pretty quick. Towards the end of the summer, we got two breaks from camp and headed up to Colorado. The first trip we knocked off Humboldt Peak in the dark. We spent the next day lounging at camp and playing with the marmots because of uncertain weather. On the second trip we topped Crestone Needle on the first day and Kit Carson Peak and Peak 13,799 the next. A mountain goat adopted us and hung around our camp for a couple days.