The man who hiked Camelback Mountain fully naked last Saturday wasn't on drugs, but his jaunt was preceded by four sleepless nights and mental problems, says his friend.
Nicholas Pirsein, 19, was at the scene on Saturday and appears in a YouTube video made by the woman who urged other hikers to tackle the suicidal man.
Brian Zelienski, 22, began his breakdown days before the incident and drew Pirsein inadvertently into his disordered world view, Pirsein says.
"He almost had my sanity with his," Pirsein says, adding that he "made the wrong decision" in following his friend for those days.
Pirsein met Zelienski about three months ago in their home state of Illinois and became fast friends, both interested in skateboarding. A month ago, the young men decided on a whim to move to the Valley, he says. They moved into an apartment near 37th Street and Thomas Road and "had jobs lined up."
As November began, Zelienski and Pirsein began an unceasing philosophical conversation, believing they were coming up with far-reaching insights.
No drugs were involved, Pirsein insists, but the two stayed up all night talking about their ideas. For the next couple of days, they talked at length about their ideas and strolled through miles of city streets.
One of those ideas: "Everything is inside of itself."
Notice how
the sentence starts with an "e" and ends with an "f," Pirsein explains.
Far out, right? They also dwelled on "coincidences" such as the fact
that both of their fathers are named Brian. Zelienski led the
conversation and Pirsein followed along.
They chatted with dozens
of strangers during the walkabouts, talking about their insights and
trying to brighten peoples' lives, Pirsein says.
After talking to each stranger, "we'd ask people, 'Are we crazy? They'd say 'No, you're making perfect sense.'"
But
Pirsein also talked to some family members and friends during those
days, and they told him the ideas didn't make sense. Yet Pirsein stuck
with his friend, finding intellectual stimulation in their inner quest.
That Friday, November 4, they decided to hike to the top of Camelback Mountain.
"We could see everything. It's beautiful up there. We thought it was, like, a special mountain," he says.
They
came back the next morning and hiked it again, having talked their
way through a fourth sleepless night. They got about halfway and went
back down, walking back to their apartment.
A half an hour later, "we came up with a plan. We had to go back to the mountain."
Pirsein
says the plan involved "saving the world" by staring at the sun, which
they hoped would result in the "dark" of their eyes becoming bright.
"We went up that mountain to take away the evil from our hearts," he says.
The
pair cut through a neighborhood and found themselves once again on
Camelback's Echo Canyon trail, a rugged, steep 1.2-mile route to the
summit that is one of the most popular hikes in the Valley. It was a
great day for hiking, with temperatures in the mid 60s.
Zelienski's
thoughts had become increasingly bizarre over the four days, but not
incoherent or unreasonable, at least according to Pirsein. As they began
their second trip of the day up Echo Canyon -- with no sleep and no
water -- Zelienski snapped into a much worse mental state, Pirsein says.
On
the trail, Zelienski spouted that he was "god" and didn't need shoes
because he couldn't be hurt. So he took them off. Then he said he didn't
need a shirt.
When Zelienski took off his pants and underwear,
too, Pirsein realized things had gotten totally out of control. He tried
to explain to Zelienski that he couldn't do that because of all the
people on the trail. But Zelienski refused to get dressed. He began
babbling, now making very little sense.
Pirsein says he got in
Zelienski's face and demanded that he put his clothes on. That's when
Zelienski picked up a rock and "threatened to kill me," he says.
Zelienski
immediately backed off from the threat, saying, "No, I won't, you're my
friend." But Pirsein says he became scared of his friend and ran up
ahead of him. Pirsein decided to hike to the summit and "try out my plan
to save the world."
After reaching the top, Pirsein squinted at
the sun for a few seconds, then turned in pain, his eyes tearing up. His
friend had "lied" to him. The endeavor wasn't rational. He began hiking
back down to his buddy.
Lower on the mountain at about that
time, I ran into the naked man hiking by himself. See my blog post on
the experience by clicking on the above hyperlink.
As that post
mentioned, Valley resident Ewelina Federkiewicz soon came upon the man
and tried to help him. On one of the videos she made with her cell
phone, Federkiewicz confronts Pirsein and tells him he needs to help his
friend. Pirsein replies that he's done all he can. On another of her
videos, Zelienski can clearly be heard saying he's going to throw
himself off the mountain and kill himself.
Though the summit
isn't the location of the biggest drop-offs in the mountain park, there
are a few doozies. Federkiewicz convinced a couple of burly guys to grab
the naked man and hold him on the ground until firefighters could
arrive. Zelienski was soon air-lifted off the mountain and taken to a
hospital.
The police report on the incident isn't yet available, but police tell New Times
that they found no evidence that the two had used drugs. But the report
will be submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for possible
criminal charges, says Phoenix Police Sergeant Trent Crump.
Pirsein
tells Jackalope Ranch that when he made it back to Echo Canyon's
parking lot, a cop informed him that at least 32 people had called to
complain about his friend.
Zelienski was evaluated by mental
health professionals earlier this week. Pirsein says his friend was
still in a hospital as of Friday; he didn't know which one.
Before
the second hike up Camelback, Zelienski put a hole in the ceiling of
their apartment, Pirsein says. A neighbor who'd heard the noise told the
manager, resulting in a weekend eviction.
On Friday night,
Pirsein was on a bus for Illinois to return to his family. He hopes the
public won't view his friend too harshly.
"He's gonna feel like
an idiot" when he recovers, Pirsein says. He knows his friend "loves
little kids" and would have never intentionally exposed himself.
Although
some may not see the incident as humorous, Pirsein says there were many
"funny" moments in their four-day adventure and he wrote down every
detail, hoping it might provide fodder for comedy sketches. The pair
dreamed of someday meeting comedic actor Seth Rogen to share their
ideas with him, Pirsein says.
Call it drama or tragi-comedy, last
week's very public debut of the friends from Illinois won't be
forgotten anytime soon by Camelback hikers.