I normally ski a smaller hill nearby (Mount Pakenham) but decided to try out Calabogie. I'm comfortable on most terrain but I found Calabogie to be challenging because the grade of some trails switches very suddenly without warning. A number of times I was on a blue trail(even once on a green trail) and there were parts of the trails that were definitely black ratings. For example the bottom part of Shantyman should probably should be rated as blue or black (it's way too steep for a beginner). Bailey's and Causeway (both blue) blend into Finnegan rather seemlessly and without obvious signs, so if you're new to the hill you could easily end up on a black run without realizing it (that's what I did). Even the Old K&P had many sections that I definitely do not consider to be beginner friendly. Fortunately, as mentioned, I'm comfortable with all types of terrain so it wasn't a problem for me, but I can see from the other reviews and also from the number of people being carried off in sleds (about 2 in 2hrs) that the signage/trail classification leads to dangerous situations. I totally sympathize with the other review on here where someone described a hairpin turn on a green run. They just kind of sneak up on you, which is hard for a beginner to handle. For these reasons, I would not recommend this resort for beginners.
With that being said, the signage for specific features was great. There were some moguls, terrain park features, the snowcross park, etc that were very clearly marked with "expert only". ...It's just the steepness of the normal slopes that is poorly signed. It also would have been nice if the type of terrain was noted in the map. For example, Buckshot had signage at the top of it saying that it was thin coverage and ungroomed, but it said nothing about this on the trail maps.
Speaking of trail maps, there are non posted on the mountain themselves. I had one of those handy maps that they give out at the ticket booth, but sometimes it's nice to look at a map at the top or bottom of the hill instaed of fishing around in your pocket for your map.
Also as mentioned by other reviews, the website said that all trails were open but because only 1 lift was open (during the week), effectively you cannot get to some of the trails. This is false advertising. I'm also not sure why they would run solar quad instead of lakeview, since lakeview seems to cover 100% of the trails and solar quad leaves out a few.
Grooming was not great compared to Pakenham. I was surprised to see some bare patches on the mountain (and I'm not talking about the intentionally ungroomed rock cuts). The same day that I skiied Calabogie I also went to Pakenham for night ski and the Pakenham snow was way better.
The roof in the chalet was leaking and it looks like a lot of the resort is in various stages of disrepair. Hopefully some money gets invested into fixing things up before the place completely falls apart.
Overall, I had a pretty good experience. Very friendly staff. Resort (parking, lift tickets, food, etc) is easy to navigate. Short/no lines during the week. Cute little cafeteria. Well laid-out design. Just make sure you're on your toes with the runs since they really aren't adequately marked.
