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Pine Knob

Home / Ski Resorts / Pine Knob

Pine Knob is a ski area located in the state of Michigan in USA. The resort is in the town of Clarkston, MI.

We recently ranked all of Michigan's ski resorts, so you can see where Pine Knob stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Pine Knob is not a part of any nationwide lift ticket system. Passes such as Epic, IKON, or Mountain Collective allow pass holders to ski at multiple mountians with a single purchase. Unfortunately, none of those passes with with Pine Knob. To purchase season passes, you'll need to visit Pine Knob's website.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Pine Knob around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Pine Knob Terrain Overview

Pine Knob has a total of 17 ski trails, which are serviced by 12 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Pine Knob is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 85 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 34 hectares, 0.1 square miles, or 0.3 square kilometers.

Pine Knob's slopes see on average 60 inches (1.8 meters) of snowfall a year.

Trails
Total Runs
17
Ski Lift
Lifts
12
Skier
Skiable Acres
85(0 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
60"(1,829 cm)

Pine Knob Elevation

Pine Knob has a summit elevation of 1,300 feet, or 396 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 1,000 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 300 feet (91 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Pine Knob has a very low summit elevation. The summit of this park is one of the smaller ones in the country.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
1,300'(396 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
300'(91 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
1,000'(305 m)

Pine Knob Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
34.5out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Pine Knob can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 70% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Pine Knob has 85 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Pine Knob is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 30% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 70%.
Green Circle
Beginner
30%(26 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
35%(30 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
35%(30 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Pine Knob good for beginners?

Pine Knob can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 70% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

Pine Knob Location

Pine Knob is located in the state of Michigan, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Clarkston, MI.

Address:
Clarkston, MI 48348 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
skipineknob.com

GPS Coordinates:
42.75000, -83.38000

Getting to Pine Knob

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Pine Knob), its coordinates of 42.75000, -83.38000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Clarkston, MI to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Pine Knob.

NameCodeCityDistance
Detroit Metropolitan AirportDTWDetroit, MI37 mi
Cleveland Hopkins International AirportCLECleveland, OH121 mi
John Glenn Columbus International AirportCMHColumbus, OH192 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Pine Knob.

NameCodeCityDistance
Bishop International AirportFNTFlint, MI24 mi
Windsor AirportYQGWindsor, ON39 mi
Chris Hadfield AirportYZRSarnia, ON57 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Pine Knob, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Pine Knob.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Mt. HollyHolly, MI1,105 ft39%11 mi
Mt. BrightonBrighton, MI1,330 ft34%27 mi
Apple MountainFreeland, MI620 ft23%61 mi
Clear ForkButler, OH2,400 ft32%96 mi

Pine Knob Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation1,300 ft
Base Elevation1,000 ft
Vertical Drop300 ft
Trails17
(30% Beginner,  35% Intermediate,  35% Expert)
Lifts12
Skiable Acres85
Avg. Annual Snowfall60 inches
Pine Knob Mountain Stats
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