Ascend - Stair Stepper Racing

A row of stair steppers in a gym, seen from the floor

The problem

The hardest machine in the gym. And the most boring.

Forty minutes, one console, the same numbers ticking up. Nobody to chase and nothing to win.

The fix

Ascend turns it into a race.

Your headphones count every step

AirPods or Beats track every step automatically. Nothing to log.

You race other climbers

Every step moves your athlete up the stairs, past other climbers' best climbs, step for step.

You climb the leaderboard

Win the week, the month or the year, and wear the crown everyone sees.

The prize

Chase the crown.

Weekly, monthly, yearly and all-time champions wear their crown on every board in the app.

WEEKLY

MONTHLY

YEARLY

ALL TIME

The weekly leaderboard with last week's champion

Climbs around the globe on the Home screen

FAQ

Ascend is a stair stepper racing app for iOS. You pick a real tower, such as the Empire State Building, Taipei 101, or the Eiffel Tower, and race its actual step count on the machine in front of you, against every climber who has taken it on. Your rank, your records, and your history all come out of the races you run.

A Live Climb is one race up one tower. Ascend counts your steps in real time from compatible headphone motion, ranks you against the attempts already posted on that tower, and gives you a completion summary, splits, and leaderboard context when you finish.

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.

A stair stepper and a pair of motion-equipped AirPods or Beats. That is the whole kit. A Bluetooth chest strap is optional and adds live heart rate and effort zones while you climb.

For heart rate, yes. Connect Apple Health and Ascend attaches the heart-rate data recorded while you were racing to that climb, so an Apple Watch or any wearable that writes to Apple Health can supply it. Ascend does not import workouts from Apple Health, and there is no manual workout entry. Every record in Ascend comes from a climb you performed in Ascend.

No. Ascend is paid. Start with a 1-month free trial on the $29.99/year plan. Cancel anytime.

Ascend is out now on the App Store for iPhone. Download it, pick a tower, and start the race.

Compete on the stair stepper.