He spent almost 50 years alone at 10,000 feet. His hobby helped shape climate research in the Rockie

An amateur scientist began logging snowfall to keep busy. Along the way, he became an unwitting chronicler of climate change in a region known as the water tower for the drying American West.

Billy Barr pauses on the walk to his home in the abandoned mining town of Gothic, Colo. (Chet Strange for The Washington Post)