Trouble Installing npm on Mac

I can't seem to get npm working on os x mountain lion with the latest version of node (0.8.11). Either building from source, or using the installer, I get a command not found when trying to run npm. I checked /usr/local/bin and npm is present, here's an ln -l

lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  38 Oct  2 16:33 npm -> ../lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js

Following to /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/bin shows

drwxr-xr-x  4 24561  staff   136 Oct  2 16:33 node-gyp-bin
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root   staff   274 Sep 27 12:39 npm
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root   staff  2247 Sep 27 12:39 npm-cli.js
-rw-r--r--  1 root   staff   209 Sep 27 12:39 npm.cmd
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root   staff   504 Sep 27 12:39 read-package-json.js

When running 'make install' from source, I get the following error

symlinking ../lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js -> /usr/local/bin/npm
updating shebang of /usr/local/bin/npm to /usr/local/bin/node
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tools/install.py", line 225, in <module>
run(sys.argv[:])
File "tools/install.py", line 220, in run
if cmd == 'install': return files(install)
File "tools/install.py", line 203, in files
if 'true' == variables.get('node_install_npm'): npm_files(action)
File "tools/install.py", line 166, in npm_files
update_shebang(link_path, shebang)
File "tools/install.py", line 133, in update_shebang
s = open(path, 'r').read()
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/local/bin/npm'
make: *** [install] Error 1

My path is the following:

bash:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin: No such file or directory

The installer runs smoothly with no errors, but I still won't execute npm. Thanks for any help!