The best cardio deserves a better app.

Ascend is the iOS app made for the stair stepper: live climbs to race, best efforts to beat, routines to run, trends to track, and every reason to keep climbing.

Coming soon on the App Store

Take on iconic climbs across the globe and see where you rank.

Ascend globe browse screen with climb search and landmark cards

01 / Discover

Browse famous landmarks across the globe.

Ascend climb detail screen for Empire State Building

02 / Preview

Check the steps, floors, time, and completions.

Ascend Live Climb leaderboard with current user highlighted

03 / Climb

Watch your rank update while you climb.

Ascend Live Climb result screen with rank, stats, best effort, and splits

04 / Review

Review your rank, best effort, stats, and splits.

Ascend share screen with an Empire State Building Live Climb result card

05 / Share

Save a share card with your climb and result.

Ascend Live Climb leaderboard screen for a climb

06 / Leaderboard

Compare completed attempts on the climb leaderboard.

Best Efforts

Beat the version of you that showed up last time.

Ascend turns your hardest stair-stepper sessions into records you can chase: most steps, longest climbs, fastest pace, rolling windows, and progress charts tied back to the workouts that set them.

Ascend Best Efforts detail screen showing a Most Steps record, progress chart, and history tab

Routines to Run

Pick the stair session your body needs today.

Ascend gives you pre-built stair-stepper routines for endurance, max output, and heart-rate-zone work, then guides each interval while you climb. Finished routines log with the rest of your workout history, and you can save favorites, repeat what works, or build your own interval structure from scratch.

Ascend Pyramid Climb routine detail screen

FAQ

Ascend is an iOS app dedicated to stair-stepper workouts. It combines logging, imports, routines, Best Efforts, Live Climbs, share cards, and leaderboards around one stair-first workout history.

Live Climbs are real-time stair-stepper attempts against landmark climb goals. They use compatible headphone motion tracking for live steps and can unlock climb history, completion summaries, and replay leaderboard context.

During a Live Climb, Ascend reads the motion in your AirPods or compatible headphones and runs a stair-stepper-tuned step algorithm in real time — your steps, pace, and rank update every second as you climb. It measures your actual movement, so the count stays accurate as long as you’re climbing. Stop stepping and it stops counting, exactly as it should.

Yes. Ascend imports your stair-stepper workouts from Apple Health, with review states designed to keep your history clean and avoid duplicate records.

No — Ascend is a subscription. Start with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan ($49.99/year), or go month-to-month at $9.99/month. Cancel anytime.

Ascend is in active development and launching on the App Store soon. Check back here for the release.

Track the stair stepper like the workout it is.

Ascend is coming to the App Store. Climb real landmarks, race the leaderboard, and make every step count.

Coming soon on the App Store