{"id":361192,"date":"2026-04-03T01:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361192\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:44:09","slug":"new-zealander-will-campbell-slipped-while-rock-climbing-at-red-rock-canyon-hospitalised-with-head-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/361192\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealander Will Campbell slipped while rock climbing at Red Rock Canyon, hospitalised with head injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">The accident happened about 2pm last Saturday, local time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">His friend Tomas Doell, who was with him at the time, told 8 News Now, that \u201cit was traumatising for everybody involved in the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWill is just fantastic. Just the best human ever. He lights up every room he goes in. He\u2019s always got a smile on his face. Super loving and joking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-will-campbells-recovery\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-will-campbells-recovery\">A Go Fund Me page has been set up by Doell to raise funds for Campbell\u2019s medical bills.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cDuring his climb, Will suffered a serious head injury and is now in the hospital facing a long road to recovery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe financial burden of hospital bills and ongoing rehabilitation is overwhelming for Will and his loved ones. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe funds raised through this campaign will go directly toward covering his medical expenses, including emergency treatment, hospital stays, and the rehabilitation he needs to regain his strength and independence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Doell told 8 News Now that although Campbell uses traveller\u2019s insurance, it does not cover the accident. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">The page has so far raised nearly US$30,000 ($52,500).<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Doell said Campbell was an experienced rock climber, and the group of friends regularly chose Red Rock Canyon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere\u2019s lots of cool opportunities in Red Rocks, as far as large multi-day, multi-pitch climbing, single pitch like sport climbing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere\u2019s just climbing for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Doell said: \u201cIt\u2019s honestly been the worst four days of my life. It feels like we\u2019ve spent a month in the last four days. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cEspecially waiting for the helicopter, I was one of the people waving it down,\u201d Doell said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt just felt like a whole lifetime. And seeing Will in that condition was just, and currently is, still heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">Campbell was cleared for release from hospital on Tuesday, with his recovery \u201cexpected to take months\u201d, according to Doell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sYHrSxRJWo\" style=\"display:none\">The Herald has reached out to Campbell and friends for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The accident happened about 2pm last Saturday, local time. His friend Tomas Doell, who was with him at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1975,15555,190220,12630,106,42,20557,28750,15258,3180,117,43,15406,17182,1629,1238,49533,57105,31145,40,38,41,39,20249,6123,1533,102,35111],"class_list":{"0":"post-361192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-at","10":"tag-campbell","11":"tag-canyon","12":"tag-climbing","13":"tag-head","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-hitting","16":"tag-hospitalised","17":"tag-injury","18":"tag-near","19":"tag-new","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-red","22":"tag-reportedly","23":"tag-rock","24":"tag-serious","25":"tag-slipped","26":"tag-slipping","27":"tag-suffered","28":"tag-top-news","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topnews","31":"tag-topstories","32":"tag-vegas","33":"tag-while","34":"tag-will","35":"tag-with","36":"tag-zealander"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}