If it is so cold at the top of mountains, I’d assume it only gets colder, the closer you get to space? I started this post with the question ‘how do planes not freeze when they fly.’ Did a search and found that planes use heating elements. Did another search and found that skydiving can happen at the same general altitude as any other flight. So how do people not freeze when they jump out of planes?
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I’ve been skydiving since 2009. The air is cold, but the freefall portion is over quickly, so you don’t really have time to get that cold. If it’s below freezing at the jump altitude, we wear gloves. We also wear other clothing as appropriate. Planes thankfully generate tons of waste heat which can be blown into the cabin, but sometimes the door is leaky, and I find that getting cold on the ride up is more common than during the jump itself.
Skydiving when it’s cold on the ground as well is less fun, because then you have to stay warm while flying your canopy, packing, and waiting around for the next skydive (unless you have heated rooms for this). It can still be a nice experience, and I love autumn and sunset skydives because the view is unreal. In fact, the view is probably my favorite part of the sport. Coaching, and the close friendships we have, are also some of my favorite things. Skydivers are a very diverse bunch, but every single one has some small extra spark that other people are sometimes missing.
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