HERO6 Black

Are the newer GoPros able to withstand freezing temps now and not die instantaneously upon taking out of your jacket? I have 6 and I've given up trying to use it on the mountain.

I don’t. I think that would help but my GoPro also just doesn’t want to operate in cold temps either. It’s probably too old to use on the hill - the most I can get out of it is like a 5 second clip before it shuts down on itself lol.

It will work. All depends on your personal definition of "good images." Get the 6 and an underwater case and shoot away. Or just turn on video and take screen grabs. I have several underwater cameras and still use a GP4 on my airplane. Each iteration of GP adds features, so moving to 7 or 11 will be better. But the 6 will take decent images. All depends on your budget and what is "good" enough for you.

I always ride with my gopro hero 6. For my safety.

I second this. I use hero 6 black, it’s pretty ok for me. 4k 24fps(I use lower fps to capture the feeling of speed otherwise everything looks really slow), has stabilisation, good quality and easy to use but I would really like the additional stabilisation hero 7 offers.

The only way cheap and action camera go together is if you're buying used of Facebook marketplace. I use the Insta 360 X5 BMW MOTORADD and a GoPro hero 8. The gopro hero 6 is obsolete by today's standards. My hero 8 is nearly obsolete. I run both cameras with ND filters shooting at 8k,4k, 30fps 1/60. Gotta think about SD cards and batteries. What about a mic, how are people going to hear you? I have the DJI Mini Mic 2. So basically I have like 1k worth of camera gear on my helmet. It ain't cheap. If you want it to be cheap, it can if you buy used, but it's going to look cheap too if you don't know what you're doing.