AUSTRIA

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a land-locked country in Central Europe composed of nine federated states (Bundeslände), one of which is Vienna, Austria's capital and its largest city. Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km2 and has a population of nearly 9 million people. It is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. While German is the country's official language, many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects .

Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy with a directly elected Federal President as head of state and a Chancellor as head of the federal government. Major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is consistently ranked in the top 20 richest countries in the world by GDP per capita terms. The country has achieved a high standard of living and in 2018 was ranked 20th in the world for its Human Development Index. Vienna consistently ranks in the top internationally on quality-of-life indicators.

Austria declared its perpetual neutrality in foreign political affairs in 1955. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and joined the European Union in 1995. It plays host to the OSCE and OPEC and is a founding member of the OECD and Interpol. Austria also adopted the euro currency in 1999.

Due to the mountainous terrain, alpine skiing is a prominent sport in Austria and is extremely valuable in the promotion and economic growth of the country. Similar sports such as snowboarding or ski-jumping are also widely popular. Bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton are also popular events with a permanent track located in Igls, which hosted bobsleigh and luge competitions for the Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck. The first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012 were held in Innsbruck as well.

PUZZLE: 

NOTE: THE AUSTRIA CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES

To find AUSTRIA, identify what years the Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck.

1964 and 1976: N53 36.260 W113 21.844

1952 and 1972: N53 36.260 W113 20.861

1936 and 1952: N53 35.307 W113 20.861

1968 and 1988: N53 35.307 W113 21.844

This cache has been placed for CARW2020

1. This CARW2020 cache will be published about 6pm on Thursday, February 20, 2020.
2. This cache has been placed for the CARW event with the intention that it not be located prior to 9:00 a.m. Saturday February 22, 2020. The caches for the CARW event are released early so that the geocaching community has an opportunity to plan their routes and strategies prior to the event start.
3. Should you hunt and find this cache before the event start, it will not count for the event, and FTF points are only valid as of 9AM February 22nd.