Torben Petersen

ORIGINAL ENTRY FROM BASE194
Petersen died from exposure after spending several hours/the night on the wall where he struck the cliff and became trapped. He had been repeatedly told, by other jumpers, to be more responsive during the canopy opening sequence. He had also been repeatedly advised to apply deeper brake settings to his non-BASE specific canopy in order to avoid its excessive surge and drive. Eyewitnesses claim he had ample room and time to employ commonly practiced evasive maneuvers but he allowed his canopy to fly into the cliff. There is also an inference that the Police/National Parks authorities would not initiate their own rescue effort or let several reasonably equipped jumpers abseil to Peter and extricate him from the cliff. Authorities say it's because the rescue is too dangerous, jumpers say they are motivated by other reasons.
END ORIGINAL

UPDATE
This update comes from a jumper on the load: Torben was under canopy for only a very short time when he hit the wall and he did not have a chance to turn away from the cliff face. This is due to the fact that after about 4 seconds the wall becomes underhung and you open directly beside the wall - hence I doubt if the gear was a huge factor in his death. I along with another person on the jump believe he may have had line twists too.
END UPDATE

The update still reinforces quick decision making and immediate canopy input is a required skill.
Dare I say it may even be more important than 'hucking a gainer'.

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