Catherine and Dan met on North Quad at the University of Puget Sound. Due to both of their faulty memories, the exact moment is debated to this day. Dan recalls that they met when he skateboarded up to a beautiful freckled woman on the quad; whereas Cat contends they had, in fact, been introduced months before... Regardless, Cat remembers Dan usually smelled like campfire in those early days, and Dan was quickly intoxicated by Catherine's quiet confidence. They began dating immediately. Things got serious on an early backpacking trip to Oregon. They failed to summit the South Sister, shivered all night in a soaking, freezing rain, and fell irrevocably in love.