Skydiving in the winter…Skydiving is not a winter sport. I remember as a novice skydiver hungry to jump all the time and doing my 1st skydive in the snow. It was awesome until it was not, and in over 7,000 jumps I have only done it ONCE.. My parachute got wet I slipped on the landing got mud on all over my gear and it’s one of them skydives you do it one time so so you can say you done it and no more….Gateway Skydiving Center has closed every year at end of October since 2012… Just not fun guys..
Why don’t we skydive in the winter?
Well we believe that your first skydive should be an amazing experience and not a freezing mess.. It is three degrees cooler on average for every 1,000 feet you go up… You do the math…. I remember when I worked at the Chicagoland Skydiving Center 15 years ago we took of and it was 27F on the ground that is not including a wind chill. I had surgical gloves under my mechanic gloves which are good for skydiving and feeling your parachute handles in hopes to stop the windchill… I will never forget my student was from a Wisconsin and said “I am Wisconsin and don’t mind this cold, this is nothing” Well he never felt cold like that.. We both landed from our skydive with snot everywhere he said…” yup my next skydive will be in July” I laughed and with my freezing hands I picked my parachute and agreed with him laughing.
Skydiving near St.Louis, MO
Now St. Louis has mild winters most of the time sure.. What we don’t think about on nice worm days it is to WINDY.. People think about rain clouds storms but never about the wind… Yes we do have wind limitations for skydiving of 25mph…
Winter time is behind the scenes time.. What happens it the kitchen as they say…. Winter is good time for parachute and airplane maintenance.. We use this down time to make sure everything is ready for our next season… Also when our students ask us don’t you get tired of skydiving all the time? Absolutely NOT we just took the winter off and when we smell fresh cut grass in the spring we are ready to go. WE cant wait for 2024 skydiving season season.
