A metaphorical wind knocked her breathless when in 2004 she met Sean, also bound for Antarctica via Christchurch, New Zealand. Sadly saying goodbye to her New York boyfriend, Ott found love at McMurdo, and the story is told in her unconventional memoir, “Outer Space Is Closer Than Antarctica: And Other Things I Learned While Falling In Love At The Bottom Of The World” ($19.95 in hardcover from Chronicle Books; also for Amazon Kindle).
It’s unconventional because it blends the author’s inner exploration with the science she learned (and experienced) at McMurdo. In her time there she worked as a dining attendant and baker (included is the round cookie recipe for 1000 people; think 10 pounds of butter and 40 eggs), later as a janitor, and still later as Administrative Coordinator in the galley.
Antarctica—coldest place, windiest, driest. And then there’s “the Kármán line,” the place “where outer space begins, 62 miles above sea level; it is the border between earth’s atmosphere and outer space. When we cross this threshold, we leave the conditions of aeronautics and enter the conditions of astronautics. We can no longer fly airplanes; we need spaceships.” Ott notes the distance from Chico to McMurdo Station “is 8,496 miles. This means that outer space is closer than Antarctica!”
Ott’s whimsical drawings make the science accessible as she describes katabatic winds, the polar vortex, an ice cube neutrino detector, and the thirteen pieces of clothing needed for extreme cold.
Her 47-year-old self looks back two decades, “yearning for a different feeling…. That which I thought was far away has arrived.”
