Canada's alpine skiing federation plans to host a ski racing safety summit in April with the aim of reducing injuries in the sport, president Max Gartner said Monday. A spate of injuries recently on the alpine World Cup circuit included a broken leg and torn anterior cruciate ligament for Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis, who crashed in a downhill at Chamonix on Saturday.

Austrian skier Mario Scheiber on Monday ruled out a return to the circuit this season and voiced doubts over his future career, after breaking his collarbone and nose in a training crash last week. Scheiber, 27, lay unconscious for three minutes on Thursday after a heavy spill on the 'Verte des Houches' run in Chamonix.

He was Austrian skiing's second casualty inside a week after teammate Hans Grugger crashed during training on Kitzbuehel's Streif course. Grugger, who was placed in an induced coma after undergoing an operation on serious head injuries, was taken off a ventilator on Monday and was increasingly opening his eyes, doctors said.

Gartner plans to bring together leaders from Canada's ski community, sports science experts and members of the international ski racing community at the summit in Calgary.

Although the summit will look primarily at Canadian domestic programmes, Gartner indicated he hoped the International Ski Federation (FIS) would be involved.

"The injuries we've seen in World Cup competition have been significant and they need to be reduced," Gartner said. "We have to make sure we are at the table with FIS to reduce injuries at that level and make sure there's some urgency to their plans to examine safety in ski racing."