Crossword Genius

New route up peak maybe being developed (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nascent

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'being developed' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'new route up' is the wordplay.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'route up' becomes 'ascent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'n'+'ascent'='NASCENT'

'peak maybe' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for nascent that I've seen before include "Coming into being, beginning to develop" , "Coming into existence" , "Budding early" , "being coined" , "not yet mature" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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