Pros:
This is one of the top 5 courses in Colorado. At 10,000 feet a mountain course rarely gets better than this. I call it a "professional course" because while it may not be maintained every day, the layout and design of the course is clearly professional. Beautiful fairways cut out between the pine trees are in a perfect mixture with natural formations within the woods. The course starts out a bit hard to find, but once you are there it is well worth it. The front nine are much more technical, short, and have much tighter fairways. The back nine are more "free" mountain holes in terms of manicuring the fairways, and require much longer (yet just as accurate bombs). This course will certainly take every throw in your bag! Hyzers, anhyzers, s-curves, bombers, thumbers, scoobies, and tomahawks. When... and yes I say when, not if... you get stuck in the woods, expect to get creative and take some risks. The course requires a lot of hiking, and is at 10,000 feet in elevation, and will take a group of two fit guys about two hours to play. I have ran and played the course myself which took about 1.25 hours with no distractions. While this is fairly tucked in the backwoods, it is very easy to find your way from hole to hole. Leadville is certainly the most beautiful course I have ever been to: Gorgeous red, brown and white rock, loads of pine trees, and a majority of the time there are gorgeous views of 14,000 ft. snowcapped peaks and that blue Colorado sky. This course is also rarely visited, and in the six times I have played here I have only ran into four other groups of people (and that includes running solo past three groups). There is not much else to say besides this place is gorgeous, very technical, very long, very hard, and extremely well thought out. It would be wrong to miss this course if you are in the area... they don't make too many like this one.
After playing this course 10 or so times I have come to the conclusion that holes 2-9 are truly what make this course unique, ultra challenging, professional, and entertaining. These 8 holes are some of my favorite ever. Very tight lines beautifully cut out through chunks of tight forest. Straight away gaps, deep hooks, and one cut out anhyzer (hole 5, one of my favorites). After hole 9 the course was clearly left as is, and no trees were removed. While the back 9 are more open spaces with scattered trees, they are still very fun. They are not SUPER creative, but the distances and pin placements make them very hard. While they are all fairly similar, you will not find yourself getting bored with shot style, as each hole still requires a different shot and has a fairly well define "fairway" you want to hit.
Cons:
This course is a bit in the middle of nowhere.... but thats probably what makes it so uncrowded and gives it such a relaxed vibe.
Other Thoughts:
This is one of my favorites in the state. It is a very hard course, but can be played extremely well if the proper lines are hit. Play it. Disc at 10,000 feet.
I probably would rate this course a 3.5, but holes 2-8 really make this course for me! Enough to bump it up a half point. The back 9 truly only gets a bit boring after you have been a regular at this course for some time.