Santiago Peak : A Message Center in the Clouds

As the rest of Orange County basked in springlike temperatures Thursday, radio technician Tom Webb stepped out of his truck and into ankle-deep snow, hunched low in his jacket against the freezing wind atop 5,687-foot Santiago Peak.

For nearly an hour, Webb had threaded his way past rock slides and snowdrifts on a narrow shale road, where one wrong turn could have meant a deadly drop of hundreds of feet.

Once on top, he walked inside a two-story building bristling with microwave dishes and antennas, and checked to make sure everything was working properly in the two dozen radio repeaters that relay AT&T;’s long-distance telephone calls from Southern California to points far beyond.

Webb is one of five AT&T; technicians who take turns repairing and maintaining the sensitive microwave equipment in the long-distance telephone company’s Santiago Peak radio station, situated atop the highest point in Orange County.

Although some flatlanders might dislike the prospect of working in snow and freezing temperatures, Webb finds it a treat.

“I enjoy it. I get to roam around the mountains and play with radios,” said the 36-year-old Bellflower resident.

The view alone, Webb said, is worth the drive. Looking in one direction, he could see the tan-colored cliffs of Santa Catalina Island about 50 miles west. Turning south, he could make out purplish mountains in northern Mexico, as well as a few tall buildings in San Diego County along the way. And in the other directions, a dizzying panorama of snow-capped mountains and lush valleys unfolded at his feet.

Clustered near AT&T;’s facility are 22 other buildings, equipped with radio repeaters from other companies that relay signals for everything from cellular telephones to pocket beepers. Their owners are united in an organization known collectively as the Hilltop Users Assn. AT&T; officials said the 23 buildings make the mountaintop one of the world’s busiest in terms of radio communications.

Each facility has its own technicians who brave the 15-mile drive up from the Orange County flatlands. Webb said AT&T;, which was first on the mountain in 1950, sends a technician up an average of once a week and usually is first to dispatch its team after a storm hits.

During big storms atop the peak, the technicians have been called out as early as 3 a.m. to clear away snow from clogged generators or repair some other weather-related problem that causes noise interference on the long-distance calls being made down below.

If the peak were to be completely knocked out of service--a phenomenon that has not happened in recent memory--calls would be rerouted to another relay station, AT&T; spokeswoman Shauna Lindsay said.

Webb’s Anaheim-based crew has jurisdiction over eight other repeater stations in Southern California, which are mostly in easy-access city areas. But they say this one is by far the most challenging to get to and maintain. And since it is so tough, they all take turns servicing it once a week.

The crew members never know what they are going to encounter on Santiago Peak. One time, Webb and another crew member drove up on a mountain lion and her two cubs scurrying across the road. On Wednesday, fresh deer tracks could be seen in the snow.

Forced Off the Road

Another time, Webb was forced off the road by a pickup truck that came barreling around a hairpin curve. Webb’s Jeep was left dangling over the side of a canyon several hundred feet deep. He said he waited there for six hours until another truck arrived to tow him back on the road.

The only access to Santiago Peak is on rut-filled dirt roads that occasionally wash away in heavy rains. AT&T; had to call in a bulldozer just last month to clear away rock slides that blocked an access road after a heavy storm.

The roads are so steep and winding that they also take their toll on vehicles. Only hardy four-wheel-drive vehicles are used to make the climb. But even they break down along the way, leaving a technician stranded until he can radio for help.

There is adventure at the top of the peak, as well.

In the winter, storms blanket the mountain in fog and snow. The snowfall has been heavy enough that technicians have been trapped atop the peak, where AT&T; maintains an emergency stockpile of canned food and bottled water. Two folding beds are kept in a storeroom.

In warmer months, there is the problem of crime. Vandals shoot up the buildings and signs and leave broken beer bottles littered about the mountaintop. During one spree in 1986, thieves struck the mountaintop three consecutive nights, pillaging contractors’ equipment. And in one instance, they threatened a contractor with a gun, according to a special advisory posted at Santiago Peak by AT&T; radio supervisor Bob Gabriel.

But Webb’s biggest problem on the “hill,” as he calls it, isn’t with people, wild animals or inclement weather.

It is with bugs.

During the spring, he said, Santiago Peak is literally crawling with all kinds of insects, including earwigs that have to be scraped out “by the pound” inside the AT&T; building and ladybugs that congregate in such numbers they turn fence posts red.

“It’s worse than an Alfred Hitchcock movie,” Webb said, adding that the ladybugs bite.

Despite these nuisances, Webb still finds peace on Santiago Peak, a wild and windy place that boasts a history as rich as its view.

Indians once revered the peak as the holy ground of their gods, while the early Spanish explorers considered it so noteworthy that they christened it Santiago, after the patron saint of Spain, according to Orange County historian Jim Sleeper.

During the 19th Century, Santiago Peak acquired a wild reputation as a home for mining camps and a crossing ground for horse thieves. A path still known as Horsethief Trail was used by 19th-Century criminals to run stolen horses across the Santa Ana Mountains into Riverside County, Sleeper said.

Although the largest animal seen there now is an occasional mountain lion, Sleeper said grizzly bears roamed Santiago Peak as recently as 1908, when the last one in California was shot in Holy Jim Canyon at the base of the mountain.

Not every radio technician appreciates the history and scenery of Santiago Peak. That is why AT&T; doesn’t force its technicians to service it if they don’t want to, Webb said. For those people, he said, there are safer city locations they can concentrate on.

Even for Webb, going up the mountain once every five weeks is enough. More often than that, he said, could be too much of a rigor.

As it is, he finds it exhilarating to escape the confines of the city, if only for a few hours.

“To me,” he said, “this is play.”