Well, "bad" is a relative term. I live north of CDA and south of a ski resort. So if you like snow, the winters are good. ;-)
There’s a much bigger snow belt where Bill lives. It tapers off quite a bit the closer you get to CDA.
The Schweitzer Resort ski area near Bill can get 400 inches of snow in a good year so there is great skiing. There are about five ski resorts within 90 minutes of CDA and Schweitzer is the biggest and best.
It’s a great jumping off point to Glacier, Yellowstone, Banff, Lake Louise, the Canadian Rockies, and lots of great state and provincial parks.