Mountain guide initially hesitant, coming in after French climbing (6)
I believe the answer is:
sherpa
'mountain guide' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'initially hesitant coming in after french climbing' is the wordplay.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'coming in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'after french' becomes 'apres' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'climbing' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters climb up).
The initial letter of 'hesitant' is 'h'.
'h' put into 'apres' is 'aprehs'.
'aprehs' reversed gives 'SHERPA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sherpa that I've seen before include "Native Himalayan mountain climber" , "Phrase for a native Himalayan climber" , "Highly competent guide" , "Mountain dweller" , "High-up employee" .)