Terms of Service

Last updated: August 8, 2026

Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Ascend, including the Ascend iOS app, website, subscriptions, onboarding, climbs, leaderboards, and related services. By creating an account, starting a trial, subscribing, or using Ascend, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Ascend.

What Ascend Does

Ascend is a stair stepper racing app. You race real landmark climbs on a stair stepper, and Ascend measures those races, ranks them on leaderboards, awards achievements, and shows your progress over time. It also provides guided interval routines you run on the same machine.

Every climb, routine, and record in Ascend comes from a session you performed in Ascend. Ascend does not import workouts from Apple Health or any other app, and it does not accept manually entered workouts. Apple Health is used only to enrich a session you performed in Ascend: with your permission, Ascend reads heart-rate and active-energy samples for that session's own time window and attaches your heart rate and active-energy calories to it. It reads nothing else, and it never writes to Apple Health.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Ascend. If the laws where you live require a higher age to use online services or paid subscriptions without parent or guardian consent, you must meet that higher age or have the required consent.

Accounts

You are responsible for your account and for keeping your sign-in credentials secure. You agree to provide accurate account and profile information, keep it reasonably current, and notify us if you believe your account has been compromised.

Health and Safety

Ascend provides racing, competition, fitness, and progress tools. Ascend does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, emergency services, or professional health guidance. Consult a qualified medical professional before starting or changing an exercise program, especially if you have a medical condition, injury, disability, pregnancy-related concern, or other health risk.

You are responsible for exercising safely, using equipment properly, and stopping if you experience pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, chest pain, faintness, or other concerning symptoms. Ascend's metrics, step counts, heart-rate displays, calorie estimates, climb estimates, and leaderboard calculations may be incomplete or inaccurate and should not be used for medical decisions.

Subscriptions, Trials, and Paid Access

Ascend requires a paid subscription for access. The launch offer has two auto-renewing plans that unlock the same app access.

Annual plan: A seven-day free trial for eligible Apple accounts, then $49.99 per year unless canceled before the trial ends. If your Apple account is not eligible for the free trial, the annual plan is charged $49.99 at confirmation of purchase.
Monthly plan: $9.99 is charged immediately at confirmation of purchase, with no free trial, and the subscription renews monthly.
Auto-renewal: Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current billing period.
Billing: Payment is charged to your Apple account at confirmation of purchase, or at the end of the annual free trial when your Apple account is eligible for that trial, as shown in the App Store purchase flow.
Renewal charge: Your Apple account may be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current billing period.
Cancellation: You can manage or cancel subscriptions in your Apple account subscription settings. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
Free trials: The seven-day free trial applies only to the annual plan, and Apple grants it once per Apple account or Family Sharing group. Unused trial time may be forfeited when you purchase a subscription or change plans, where allowed by Apple.
Refunds: App Store purchases and refund requests are handled by Apple under Apple's policies. Ascend cannot directly issue App Store refunds.
Restore purchases: Ascend provides restore-purchase support for eligible App Store purchases.

Apple App Store Terms

If you download Ascend from the Apple App Store, your license to the iOS app is governed by Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement unless a different license is provided in App Store Connect. These Terms govern your use of Ascend's services, account features, subscriptions, leaderboards, and related content.

These Terms are between you and Ascend, not Apple. Ascend, not Apple, is responsible for the app and its content.
You receive a limited, non-transferable license to use Ascend on Apple-branded products you own or control, as permitted by Apple's usage rules, Family Sharing, and volume purchasing rules where applicable.
Ascend is responsible for maintenance and support for Ascend. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Ascend.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no warranty obligation for Ascend. If Ascend fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple may refund the purchase price for the app, if any, as required by Apple's terms.
Ascend, not Apple, is responsible for addressing claims relating to Ascend or your use of Ascend, including product-liability, legal-compliance, privacy, consumer-protection, and intellectual-property claims.
You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo or designated as a terrorist-supporting country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. government prohibited or restricted party list.
You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using Ascend, including Apple App Store, Apple Health, Apple MapKit, Apple StoreKit, Google, RevenueCat, Superwall, Mixpanel, internet, and wireless-data-service terms.
Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms as they relate to your use of the iOS app and may enforce those rights.

Leaderboards and Fair Use

Ascend is built around competition. You agree not to manipulate climbs, sensor data, accounts, leaderboard entries, subscriptions, paywall flows, or backend services. We may remove or adjust suspicious leaderboard entries, restrict features, or suspend accounts if we believe activity is fraudulent, abusive, technically manipulated, unlawful, or harmful to other users.

User Content

You keep ownership of the notes, photos, videos, profile content, feedback, and other content you add to Ascend. You grant Ascend a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, display, back up, sync, analyze, and transmit that content as needed to operate, improve, secure, and support Ascend.

You are responsible for your content. Do not upload or share content that is unlawful, abusive, harassing, defamatory, sexually explicit, invasive of privacy, infringing, misleading, or otherwise harmful. We may remove content or restrict access if we believe it violates these Terms or creates risk for Ascend or other users.

Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

Break, bypass, reverse engineer, scrape, overload, or interfere with Ascend or its services.
Access another user's account or data without permission.
Use Ascend to violate law, intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or App Store rules.
Submit false, misleading, automated, or manipulated climb or sensor data.
Abuse support, feedback, authentication, subscription, or leaderboard systems.

Third-Party Services

Ascend integrates with third-party platforms and service providers, including Apple HealthKit, Apple MapKit, Apple StoreKit, Google Firebase, Google Sign-In, RevenueCat, Superwall, and Mixpanel. Your use of those services may also be governed by their own terms, privacy policies, platform rules, and account settings. Ascend is not responsible for third-party services it does not control.

Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect information. By using Ascend, you acknowledge that information will be handled as described in that policy.

Intellectual Property

Ascend, including its app, website, design, software, branding, text, graphics, logos, climb data structure, and related materials, is owned by Tyler Pavay or licensed to Ascend. These Terms do not transfer ownership of Ascend or its intellectual property to you.

Service Changes and Availability

We may update, change, suspend, or discontinue parts of Ascend at any time. Features, leaderboards, climb catalogs, subscription offers, pricing, trials, integrations, and availability may change over time. We are not responsible for outages, lost connectivity, App Store issues, third-party service interruptions, or device limitations outside our control.

Termination

You may stop using Ascend at any time and may delete your account where supported in the app. We may suspend or terminate access if you violate these Terms, create risk for Ascend or other users, abuse the service, or if we are required to do so by law or platform rules. Termination does not automatically cancel an App Store subscription; you must manage subscriptions through your Apple account.

Disclaimers

Ascend is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, availability, and non-infringement. We do not guarantee that Ascend will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, medically accurate, or compatible with every device, sensor, gym environment, or workout setup.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ascend and Tyler Pavay will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, lost subscriptions, personal injury, equipment issues, or leaderboard outcomes arising from or related to your use of Ascend. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Ascend and Tyler Pavay from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses arising from your misuse of Ascend, your content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of another person's rights.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms as Ascend changes. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of Ascend after updated Terms are posted means you accept the updated Terms.

Governing Law

These Terms are governed by applicable law, without limiting mandatory consumer protections that apply where you live. If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, the remaining parts will remain in effect.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at pavayt@gmail.com.