A 6 a.m. wake-up and a bowl of oatmeal behind her, Ms. Chan begins her three-kilometer, or two-mile, ascent up Mount Parker Road.
At this point, the movie abruptly drops its caper plot to concentrate on the Winklers' embattled ascent up the social ladder.
On television or at the launching, every breath was held at liftoff and every eye followed the fiery plume of ascent, up and away.
Human history is the history of our ascent up what the naturalist Loren Eiseley called "the heat ladder": coal bested firewood as an amplifier of productivity, and oil and natural gas bested coal.
But then comes the inevitable ascent up the greasy pole.
Propelled by these achievements, Mr Wan's ascent up China's political ranks was swift.
Despite finding her first run "very, very scary", she began her ascent up the international rankings.
"Parsifal" begins with a calm, quiet ascent up six notes of an A-flat scale.
With its hire of Ms. Birnbaum, Quinn Emanuel continues its ascent up the Big Law ladder.
Meanwhile, the questions over his speedy ascent up the greasy pole will only multiply.
As for humanity's survival, global warming continued its slow ascent up the news agenda.
