Chosen Places: beyond the trails, Norway

Marius Nilsen takes us to the mountains.

In 2017, I hopped on a plane from LA to New York for a photoshoot with the cycling brand Rapha. They were bringing together ambassadors from all over the world to photograph them riding in their newest Spring Collection. Spring, though, had not sprung in the Catskills in April. It was full on winter, and we shivered in our short-sleeved kits.

It may not have made for great photographs, but it did make for some good friendships. Some nine years later after only meeting once, I still count Marius Nilsen as a friend and compatriot in mountain living. Looking at his photos, it’s honestly hard to tell our lives apart, even with 4,700 miles between them.

Marius, take us away.

Where have you lived so far?

Oh, where to start ;) I was born in Asker, a town just outside of Oslo, Norway. Then in the early 80s my parents took jobs as teachers in a Norwegian school run by a Norwegian fertilizer company setting up shop in Qatar, in the middle east, so my early years were spent alongside sand dunes and camels. While living in Qatar, we traveled a lot in the Middle East and South East Asia, and I got to see a lot of the world before I started primary school. I was definitely more familiar with deserts than mountains and snow when we moved back to Norway. Having grown up “outside” of Norway, I spent a lot of time in my teens traveling and had multiple trips to India and Southeast Asia, before I ended up living in Australia for a few years to finish a degree in photography. After some time living back in Oslo, I eventually moved up into the mountains of central Norway, where I’ve been spending most of my time the last 6 years. First a place called Dovre, and now I just moved an hour further north to a small town called Oppdal.