Mount Massive Mount Massive Mount Massive is the second-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent fourteener of the Sawatch Range is located in the Mount Massive Wilderness of San Isabel National Forest, west-southwest (bearing 247°) of the City of Leadville in Lake County, Colorado, United States. Mount Massive edges out the third-highest summit of the Rockies, Mount Harvard, by , but falls short of Mount Elbert by . It ranks as the third-highest peak in the contiguous United States after Mount Whitney and Mount Elbert. Mount Massive was first surveyed and climbed
Mount Elbert who was surveying the mountain as part of the Hayden Survey. Originally measured as in height, Mount Elbert's elevation was later adjusted to following a re-evaluation of mapped elevations, which sparked protests. The actual change was made in 1988 as a result of the North American Vertical Datum of 1988; it seems the original measurement resulted from the Sea Level Datum of 1929. A matter of some contention arose after the Great Depression over the heights of Elbert and its neighbor Mount Massive, which differ in elevation by only . This led to an ongoing dispute that came to a