Brad Tuttle: Here are a few sources: www.dsusa.org (disabled sports association); ussa.org (U.S. ski association); and usaba.org (blind sports association). They should all have good recommendations for your father. They have some great programs out there these days. Good luck!

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Boston, MA: I look for the ski area with the best consistent snow without snowmaking, such as Alta and Snowbird. What area in Europe would you recommend?

Brad Tuttle: Europe can be iffy. Friends of mine hit St. Moritz in mid-January a couple years back and there wasn't a snowflake to be found. You never know with the snow, and no one wants to go all the way over to Europe just to ski on man-made snow they could have found in Killington or Stratton. In Europe as in the U.S., altitude is the key for making sure you'll have good snow (and even with the higher resorts, nothing's guaranteed). So the safest bet is the resort with high elevation, and a big vertical drop. Even if the village is all brown, the mountain will at least be white on top. Try Zermatt in Switzerland, Chamonix, in France, and just over the border from Chamonix in Italy, Courmayeur.

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Houston, TX: What ski areas do you recommend that are affordable for the New Year's holiday weekend.

Brad Tuttle: This is always a popular question, and no one ever likes the answer. There are no ski deals during the Christmas-New Year’s period. The one exception is if a resort doesn’t have snow – then they’ll wheel and deal, but why would you want to go if they don’t have good snow? Another question mentioned a condo for 4 people in Squaw Valley costs $600 a night, and there’s a 5-night minimum around that time. Sounds fairly typical to me. Lots of restaurants and bars in ski towns have New Year’s parties, and to get in you have to pay of cover of $50 and up. You’ll always pay less if you aren’t slopeside. Renting a condo 15 or 20 minutes from the slopes could easily cut your lodging bill in half. (Still, even these condos will be charging their highest rates of the year during the Christmas-New Year’s time.) If you really want to go then, book early (like now). That goes for lodging and airfare – both are going to cost you. The other route is to go skiing at the mountains that don’t really have a big village at the bottom. These places – I’m thinking of “day resorts” such as Wolf Creek, CO, and Powder Mountain, UT specifically – aren’t “destination resorts” so they don’t pull in skiers from around the country during this time period. But again, you’ll obviously have to stay a little bit away from the lifts. Yet another option: head north, to Canada, where the exchange rate helps brings costs down a little. Whistler is about as expensive as most places in the U.S., so for value I really like the resorts in British Columbia’s Okanagan area (Big White, Silver Star). You fly into Vancouver and the drive to the Okanagan’s not too bad. Go to www.hellobc.com for more info about skiing there. If your kids don’t go back to school until mid-January, it’s a no-brainer: hit the slopes after New Year’s, from say Jan 4-10. Things will cost less and slopes will be far less crowded.

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Towson, MD: Hi, Where would be the best place (domestically or internationally) to and learn how to snowboard? I'm in my mid-twenties, very athletic and looking to add a winter sport to my collection of other athletic pursuits.

Brad Tuttle: Wherever's convenient. All you need to learn to snowboard is a gently sloping hill and snow, simple as that. I learned how to ride on the hills of a farm in Vermont, and at a little hill by a grade school in New Jersey. I'm not recommending you do either of those, but there's no sense in paying big bucks for a huge resort when all you're going to use is the little baby hill. If you're athletic and can take a beating for a couple days, you'll pick up snowboarding right away. Take a lesson, get a few pointers, then go off and play. If you want a really good ski school (or snowboard school, as it is), some places are more geared for boarding than others. Stratton in Vermont has a good rep (and they even have a free bunny lift, which is great, considering their lift tix are over $70).

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Albany, NY: What is the cheapest way to go on a European ski vacation with 2 children (ages 6 and 8). They're good skiers so that isn't a problem.