MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN California AP Howitzers welcomed World Cup ski racers to this California resort on Tuesday as workers tried to clear mountain drifts from a 2-foot 0.6-meter snowfall overnight. The guns could well have been a 21-gun salute for the powerful Austrian women's team which swept two downhills and a super-G last weekend at Lake Louise Alberta. Austrian women have won four of the six races so far and with this resort playing host to a super-G and a slalom this week there's every reason to think the ``Power Team'' can add to its laurels. A year ago it was the German team that swept all before it and even though two-time World Cup overall champion Katja Seizinger is out with a knee injury the remaining members aren't quite ready to hand all the laurels to Austria. ``Mammoth Mountain is a very good slope for me steep and difficult'' said Hilde Gerg third the last two years in the overall standings and with a victory a second a third and a fifth from previous visits here Gerg was third in the super-G behind Austrian Alexandra Meissnitzer and teammates Martina Ertl and Regina Haeusl each had fourths in the downhills won both days by Renate Goetschl. While not victories those placements are giving the Germans hope early in the season. ``I think we can come more and more and get better'' Gerg said. ``Last year I was third in the overall and you think this year you can perhaps be second or even first but it's not easy. You have to look at how the other girls are skiing. Alexandra Meissnitzer is skiing very well at the moment. But it's a long season and we will see.'' Although the German women have been very good in the 1990s last year ``was a dream season for us'' said Gerg who added a gold medal in slalom and a bronze in the combined in the Olympics at Nagano Japan. ``What happened happened. The success I've had nobody can take it from me. It's mine'' she said. ``But we also want to continue to ski well. We want to say it wasn't only one season. ``It's very nice to have it but now it's not going to be so easy. But I think it's good to have to fight; it's not so bad if it's not always so easy.'' Gerg admits that some of Germany's early problems can be blamed on Seizinger's absence. ``Every girl is skiing for herself but on the team it's not so easy to tell who is the leader'' she said. ``With Katja it was always easy; if she said something that meant it was right.'' APW19981201.0462.txt.body.html APW19981201.1098.txt.body.html