"I am not one of the most influential people," Bonar told me, chuckling, Wednesday. "I think that's an unfortunate choice of words. I prefer 'stakeholder.'"

Whatever. The fact is, Bonar and two dozen others considered to carry heft in Utah's ski industry have been invited to meet with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Nov. 3 to discuss the notion of building tunnels and roads in Big and Little Cottonwood canyons to at last connect Salt Lake County's and Summit County's ski resorts: Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, Solitude, Park City Mountain Resort, The Canyons and Deer Valley.

It's the topic of a memo circulated earlier this week among Salt Lake-area news media. The man behind the communication is Jeff Holt, vice president of Goldman Sachs in San Francisco. Holt often participates in financial discussions revolving around Utah transportation projects.

Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Cottonwood Heights, who sits on the Senate Transportation Committee and whose district bumps up against the Cottonwood resorts, proposed the meeting. Huntsman is open to the discussion, said spokesman Mike Mower.

Mower either wouldn't or couldn't share the names of the invited guests but says the list includes "developers, Forest Service representatives, transportation people, anyone who's connected to the ski industry. We need everyone. We can't discuss issues this critical to Utah's future in a vacuum."

For now, "stakeholders" are calling it a "feasibility" discussion. But we have schussed down this slope before. Many times before. The idea of blasting through layers of rock, constructing European-style avalanche sheds along canyon roads (there are at least 10 slide zones in Little Cottonwood alone), of building one big Alps look-alike has a gray beard all over it.

Typically some Fortune 500 carpetbagger who skis here for two weeks every year pitches an interconnect project. This one is dubbed AltaBright Tunnel and CottonPark Interconnect. It's like the guy has suddenly discovered gravity - and the rest of us haven't.

Here is the memo the group ought to consider: We don't want your stinkin' tunnels and your paved Guardsman Pass. I mean, we hate to go all parochial on you, but our canyons are sacrosanct. We live and play there. We get our water there. We like them slightly isolated and unique. We don't want Vail and we don't want Chamonix.

And though the memo's talking points say Utah needs to start planning for up to "6 million skier days," that shouldn't presume we want or need or would welcome a "seven-resort Megaplex."

We like Alta as a cranky old curmudgeon with tricky traverses and no regard for nightlife. Snowbird, we like for endless acreage and Oktoberfest. Brighton is sweet and family-oriented. Park City and Deer Valley sell glitz, service and grooming.

It's character we've worked for, and it's character we want to keep.

Bonar gets the idea. He's an energetic salesman for the industry, but he knows Utah. "In the end, any question about development will have to answer 'what would it do to our precious mountains?' We don't want one big ski resort. We want them each to retain their very original characteristics."

Years ago, conservative political columnist William F. Buckley put it in writing. Buckley had been a regular Alta skier for decades. The true charm of the place, he wrote, was not in its destination as a "resort," but in its placement at the end of an old forest service road.

That, and the fact that its lifts have no safety bars. In Utah, he wrote, "you're not expected to jump from a ski lift."

hmullen@sltrib.com