Rise like condor to begin with, then halt (6)
I believe the answer is:
ascend
'rise' is the definition.
(I know that rise can be written as ascend)
'like condor to begin with then halt' is the wordplay.
'like' becomes 'as'.
'to begin with' says to take the initial letters.
'then' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'halt' becomes 'end' (synonyms).
The first letter of 'condor' is 'c'.
'as'+'c'+'end'='ASCEND'
(Other definitions for ascend that I've seen before include "Make the top" , "Move upward" , "Scale" , "Move upwards" , "Climb, go up (6)" .)