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Before reading the situation that Darius Henderson so vividly describes, it is worth noting he is \u201cnot actually that great with heights\u201d. And yet the former Watford striker happily recounts looking down at the following from a ridge on Mont Blanc.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou drop one side, you\u2019re gone,\u201d Henderson begins. \u201cYou drop the other side, you\u2019re gone. In terms of your pathway, where you are climbing you\u2019ve got crampons on and, for anyone that\u2019s worn crampons, you are prone to tripping. Because, if you catch your other foot with your crampon, you are going over.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this moment in time, this is probably the most vulnerable I\u2019ve felt. I\u2019ll never forget the guide turning to us and saying, with a very serious tone, \u2018we have to stay as close as possible and make sure there\u2019s no tripping, one foot in front of the other\u2019. That\u2019s while we can hardly breathe and your legs are burning.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiterally one slip away from\u2026 that\u2019s it, life over.\u201d<\/p>\n
And yet, Henderson is going back for more. Much more. The 42-year-old is currently training to become the first professional footballer to have climbed Mount Everest, ticking down a list of necessary challenges to ensure he is ready for the ascent in May.<\/p>\n
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A question that has been asked – to go with responses ranging from \u201cgood luck\u201d to \u201cyou\u2019re selfish\u201d – is how? Why?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put myself in those scenarios, I\u2019m already trying to question what is actually driving me to do this,\u201d Henderson laughs. \u201cIt must be something I search out and look for in life. It does scare me a little bit\u2026 to overcome my fears is probably a driving force behind this, I can only put it down to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, it\u2019s not something within arm\u2019s reach. I have to dedicate a lot of time to the training aspect, something that needs planning. It\u2019s a sacrifice over a number of years. You can\u2019t just sign up for Mount Everest. There\u2019s a process and a journey, which takes a lot of sacrifice and dedication to achieve that end goal, so it\u2019s kind of like reliving my life as a footballer. The training, the focus you need, the bravery, just in a different field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson\u2019s football career does inform much of this, right down to how you need to be a competitor. He admits there is the motivation of becoming the first player to do this, which also fits with a previous ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the ultimate goal was to score in the Premier League. That was my \u2018climbing Mount Everest\u2019 when I was a footballer. <\/p>\n
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“I did that, and I think there\u2019s less than 0.1% of footballers who can say they\u2019ve done that. Climbing Mount Everest, the odds to be able to say you\u2019ve stood on top of the highest mountain in the world, the percentage of people is even lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to say \u2018I\u2019ve done Everest\u2019\u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s selfish but it is ego-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n
You wouldn\u2019t say Henderson has an ego from speaking to him and he laughs about the first time he got called \u201ca journeyman\u201d in his twenties, but that sentiment does point to a deeper reason for how his football career informs this. He says he badly struggled with retirement and went through a \u201cgrieving period\u201d. Many former professionals would be able to relate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I missed was the routine, that purpose to be healthy, to go to work and so on. You lose something. Retirement\u2026 it\u2019s like a family member or friend has passed and you\u2019re looking at old photos of them knowing you\u2019re never going to see them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
An agent and mentor with Unique Sports Group now, Henderson says he has only recently realised that going to games was like \u201ckind of punishing myself\u201d.<\/p>\n
But why mountaineering and why now the highest peak of all? The truth was it was something Henderson sort of fell into, or perhaps climbed into, and it fit with his personality. He decided to go up Snowdon with a friend in January 2019, about a year and a half after retiring.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust jokingly walking up, we were like \u2018what\u2019s the pinnacle of this\u2019 and it was Mount Everest. So, even from doing that, I was kind of working out is that possible? Could I do it? And how would I be able to do it?<\/p>\n
\u201cSnowdon was my first ever peak, then I really got into the national three peaks. It was a healthy distraction for me. A friend who shares the same ambition mentioned a place called the Altitude Centre in London. They put on the mask to see how your body responds. I only went to see how fit I was but then they were talking me through the journey, which I didn\u2019t expect, and it was drawing me in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it was \u2018alright, if that\u2019s the end goal, let\u2019s start ticking off the things you need to have done\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was as recently as December 2021. If it feels like that\u2019s strikingly quick, consider what Henderson has done in the meantime: there are days when he now goes up Snowdon three or four times, but that\u2019s the least of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a winter skills course in Scotland, which was brilliant. The weather was absolutely brutal. It\u2019s more technical stuff, like ice axe arrest, sliding down a cliff face on your back upside down, walking up an elevation with crampons. Just the extreme weathers, the survival mode that puts you into. I absolutely loved it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen my first high-altitude mountain would have been Mount Elbrus in Russia but, only a month before we were supposed to go, the war broke out. I changed that to a trip to Cotopaxi in Ecuador, which people no longer summit because it\u2019s now a live volcano! It was then Gran Paradiso, Mont Blanc and over to Argentina for Aconcagua, one of the seven summits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those are the tallest peaks on each continent, with Aconcagua at 6,961 metres. One of the requirements to scale Everest is to have made at least one ascent of over 6,500m. That very height seems to bring something out in Henderson.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI enjoy being in an environment where I can\u2019t help but be in survival mode, in a tent, 6,000m in the air, freezing cold, minus 20, waiting to summit. You can\u2019t sleep very well but it all adds to the theatre of being able to say you\u2019ve done this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of theatre, there is otherwise silence in the room as Henderson starts to talk through what an \u201cice axe arrest\u201d actually entails.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s teaching yourself how to stop once falling. What people don\u2019t realise is, coming down a cliff face, you can build momentum up pretty quickly. Panic would probably set in and you would do anything possible – or natural – but to have a more technical insight gives you a little bit more confidence. I\u2019ve already experienced periods where you\u2019re kind of \u2018yeah, this is pretty scary\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something you probably shouldn\u2019t express to someone readying themselves to climb the highest point on earth but, on hearing this, it\u2019s impossible not to think of all the cultural imprints of mountaineering shows like \u2018Touching the Void\u2019. The response is surprising: \u201cIt makes it more appealing to me!\u201d<\/p>\n
So how those around him have reacted, especially to something he was a complete novice at just over four years ago?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have conversations, it\u2019s a real mix of \u2018absolutely fantastic, good luck\u2019 to \u2018I think you\u2019re selfish, nobody really cares\u2019. I think that was from a place of love because there are dangers. I\u2019ve got five children but then my driving force is to make sure that I\u2019m fully prepared and as fit as possible because, let\u2019s face it, I\u2019m not going there to die. I\u2019m going there to summit and to achieve something that under 1% of people are able to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
This mindset was something his partner was able to recognise. \u201cShe\u2019s been unbelievably supportive. She\u2019s seen me retire, she\u2019s seen me grieve. She\u2019s seen me have no focus, no goal, and how that affects me,\u201d Henderson explained. \u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t have got to this point without her so, hopefully to achieve it and get down safely, she\u2019ll definitely be one that I\u2019ll be thanking.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for current players, those he works with are fascinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re always questioning me, intrigued about what it takes. I\u2019ve even got one player who said it\u2019s something he would like to do when he retires. Now, if I\u2019m advising a player and talking about lifestyles, when I\u2019m living the right way and still looking to achieve goals, I think they appreciate that more.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what dictates Henderson\u2019s next few months. He has to look after his body, but to a deeper degree than just climbing. As a six-foot-three, 15-stone former target man, he is \u201con the bigger side of what is ideal\u201d. There\u2019s then the fact that one reason he retired was because of his neck.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI finished my career not being able to head a ball properly. I\u2019ve got very little cartilage left on my C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae. So I have to be careful of my neck, just day-to-day, never mind climbing mountains.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s finding this field where I can still push myself, but it\u2019s not running around trying to head a ball. Physically, I\u2019m on the bigger side of what is ideal for taking a body up a mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will look to lose as much weight as possible for Everest. In my own head I can only imagine a boxer when he goes into camp before a fight. I put myself into a camp, mentally, where I will look to slim down so I\u2019m not taking as much weight. Because over two, three, four thousand metres – never mind eight – it all adds up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, [mountain guides] don\u2019t weigh too much, their bodies are efficient. So I have to acclimatise. The trip will be a flash expedition so, from touchdown in Kathmandu and getting to the top and back down, we\u2019ll be looking to do that in under three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always pre-acclimatised at home with an altitude machine while on the treadmill, which helps your body adapt and create more red blood cells, as if you\u2019re on a mountain. Before going to the Himalayas I will probably spend three or four days in the Alps doing some technical training and I\u2019m considering going back to Aconcagua to get the height.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we go to Everest Base Camp we will climb Mera Peak from days one to eight, which is 6,500m and once we get down from there, we will be helicoptered across to Everest base camp. That’ll be days nine to 21.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up to the top of Everest. Even saying that – or \u201cgoing to the Himalayas\u201d – is quite a thought, let alone a challenge.<\/p>\n
Henderson puts it in a unique way. \u201cSince retiring, trying to find another goal, my ‘climbing Mount Everest’ became climbing Mount Everest.\u201d<\/p>\n
It puts being abused by a crowd on a freezing day into perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved matches, I loved competing, I loved the battle. While I\u2019m doing these climbs, and I\u2019m on the mountain, it is horrible, it\u2019s gruelling, it\u2019s painful, but to get to the top is all worth it. And to be able to say \u2018I\u2019ve done that mountain\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the way Henderson speaks, it\u2019s impossible not to think he\u2019ll want more if he ascends Everest; that he\u2019ll want to start going through the peaks in the manner of so many of the films and documentaries he\u2019s watched.<\/p>\n
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He starts laughing as he begins his response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019ve not got there yet, so I don\u2019t want to think too far ahead. I feel like I\u2019m back in front of Sky Sports saying \u2018one game at a time\u2019! So I\u2019m rolling back the years when I say one mountain at a time. I know the dangers. Literally my focus is on Mount Everest now.\u201d<\/p>\n