Let $(\mathbb X, T)$ be a subshift of finite type equipped with the Gibbs measure $ν$ and let $f$ be a real-valued Hölder continuous function on $\mathbb X$ such that $ν(f) = 0$. Consider the Birkhoff sums $S_n f = \sum_{k=0}^{n-1} f \circ T^{k}$, $n\geq 1$. For any $t \in \mathbb R$, denote by $τ_t^f$ the first time when the sum $t+ S_n f$ leaves the positive half-line for some $n\geq 1$. By analogy with the case of random walks with independent identically distributed increments, we study the asymptotic as $n\to\infty$ of the probabilities $ ν(x\in \mathbb X: τ_t^f(x)>n) $ and $ ν(x\in \mathbb X: τ_t^f(x)=n) $. We also establish integral and local type limit theorems for the sum $t+ S_n f(x)$ conditioned on the set $\{ x \in \mathbb X: τ_t^f(x)>n \}$.