DearTIME-Reader:

FLYING back from the South Pole to McMurdo Sound one day this month, Correspondent Edwin Rees of TIME'S Washington Bureau learned firsthand about the dread Antarctic whiteout, the dazzle of reflected light that erases all landmarks and horizons. It was, said an airman, "like flying inside a pingpong ball." The big Air Force troop carrier groped for the icy runway, plowed into a snowbank and slithered over the ice with nose down and tail high. "The feel and sound of 150,000 pounds of airplane sliding out of control is an experience I would like only once," said Rees. Fortunately, the crew and Correspondent Rees, a World War II Air Force veteran, emerged from the battered plane shaken up but uninjured (see cut).

Rees spent more than two weeks in the Antarctic with Polar Explorer Paul Siple and other members of the U.S. expedition to report this week's cover story. As part of his assignment,he trudged the volcanic hills, rode Weasels over crusty snowfields and went on supply-dropping missions over the Pole. When the mission was washed out by poor visibility and the plane had to burn off 15,000 pounds of fuel before risking an icy landing, Rees flew in one afternoon over more territory than was covered by all previous Antarctic expeditions.

Suffering from insomnia in the 24-hour polar daylight, Rees interviewed members of the expedition around the clock. He quizzed Explorer Siple over coffee in the mess, in Siple's quarters, to the accompaniment of recorded harp solos, and out on the trail. Once, caught on a ledge above McMurdo Sound in a howling gale, Siple recalled that a member of the first Scott expedition (1901-04) had been blown to his death from that very spot. "Look," the explorer shouted, "there's his cross." By the time Rees was ready to leave McMurdo Sound for home, and Siple for the Pole, where he will stay 14 months, the explorer jokingly remarked: "Now you know as much as I do about what has to be done at the Pole, and I know enough about how TIME reporters work so we can switch jobs. You go to the Pole and I'll go back to Washington." Regretfully declining the offer, Correspondent Rees flew out to Christchurch, N.Z. on his way home for Christmas.

Cordially yours,

James A. Linen

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