Hellesylt is a small village in Stranda Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village lies at the head of the Sunnylvsfjorden, which is a branch of the Storfjorden, and which the more famous Geirangerfjorden in turn branches off nearby.
The 0.44-square-kilometre (110-acre) village has a population (2018) of 258 and a population density of 586 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,520/sq mi).[1] There are several hundred other people living in the surrounding valley area as well.
In the summertime, thousands of tourists travel through or stay in Hellesylt each day. Most of them take the ferry to the nearby village of Geiranger, which in high season runs every one and a half hours. There is also a cruise ship pier that can handle very large ships. The village is surrounded by mountains and valleys. The Sunnylven Church is located in Hellesylt, which was the administrative center of the former municipality of Sunnylven.[3]
Hellesylt is under constant threat from the mountain Åkerneset, which is about to erode into the Sunnylvsfjord. A collapse could cause a tsunami destroying most of downtown Hellesylt.