Billy Barr, a modern hermit and climate sentinel in Colorado's Rocky Mountains

Brittany Peterson/AP World World World Environment Environment Environment Billy Barr, a modern hermit and climate sentinel in Colorado's Rocky Mountains By Corine Lesnes (Gothic, Colorado, special correspondent) Published today at 8:00 pm (Paris) 8 min read Lire en français Subscribers only Make us preferred on Google share Share on Messenger Share on Facebook Share by email Share on Linkedin Copy link Feature Living high in the mountains, alone in a ghost village, the American biologist began measuring snowfall in 1974 to ward off boredom.

He is now 75, and his records delight scientists who study the impact of climate change on animal species. At nearly 76, Billy Barr doesn't consider himself a hermit, despite his long white beard and more than half a century living alone at an altitude of 2,918 meters in a ghost village in the Colorado mountains. He actually considers himself to be rather "sociable." The kind of person who says, "Hey, how are you?" he explained. Not enough to "go to a party," but more sociable, in any case, than in his youth, when he was a student in New Jersey and wanted "to give up everything": the noise, the city, the judgment from others.

For more than 50 years, the recluse has been measuring snowfall in Gothic, a remote hamlet deep in the Rocky Mountains, five hours by car southwest of Denver, Colorado's capital. Gothic had its moment of glory during the silver rush of the 1880s, when its population reached as many as 1,000 inhabitants. Abandoned after the crash of 1893, it came back to life in 1928, when the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) was established there, eventually becoming one of the world's oldest centers for environmental research.

In summer, the site welcomes around 100 academics who come to study the behavior of yellow-bellied marmots – a colony monitored since 1962 – or to track the movements of pollinators in this wildflower paradise. But in winter, which lasts roughly six months of the year, Barr is the only permanent resident. With his elf-like appearance and the wool hat he knitted himself, he looks as if he stepped out of a children's storybook. Little did anyone suspect – least of all Barr himself – that he would become a sentinel for climate change in the American West and that his amateur observations would become a gold mine for scientists around the world.

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