It appears that you just want

<xsl:template match="A/C">
something
</xsl:template>


<xsl:template match="C"/> <!-- nothing -->


but if you really want to go up and down with an xpath

"parent::A/C" is simpler (and better if namespaces are involved) than 

"ancestor::*[1][name()='A']/C"

David



 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list