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Palestinian American Andrew Bisharat is an expert rock climber who has climbed and written about climbing all over the world. All over the world except . . . the place where his family has historic roots. But all that is about to change, after he is invited by a friend to visit the Palestinian Territories to meet a group of plucky novice rock climbers who have become impassioned climbers after learning in a makeshift “gym” with minimal gear. Suddenly, Bisharat, who had been getting jaded and weary of his own sport, rediscovers his passion for climbing and also confronts a sobering series of “what ifs,” as he ponders what his life would be like today had his ancestors not left for America generations earlier. The Palestinians he meets look like him and share many cultural roots, but their lives are far more circumscribed than his. Just getting to a cliff to climb, even one nominally on Palestinian land, requires crossing checkpoints, enduring threats, and endless complications. The roots of conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories are long and complicated; shouldn’t just accessing the outdoors for recreation be one thing that isn’t complicated? In “Ascend,” Mina Bakhshi, Haniya Tavasoli and Rabia Hussain had been invited by the non-profit “Ascend” to learn climbing and self-reliance skills in their home country of Afghanistan. But after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and the rapid reassertion of Taliban control, their independence and self-reliance become liabilities that make them targets of the new regime. Fleeing for safety to continue their education, in the U.S. they encounter a new community of welcoming climbers determined to empower young women and connect them to nature, with climbing expeditions in Yosemite National Park.