The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Ascend \As*cend"\, v. t.
   To go or move upward upon or along; to climb; to mount; to go
   up the top of; as, to ascend a hill, a ladder, a tree, a
   river, a throne.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Ascend \As*cend"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Ascended; p. pr. & vb.
   n. Ascending.] [L. ascendere; ad + scandere to climb,
   mount. See Scan.]
   1. To move upward; to mount; to go up; to rise; -- opposed to
      descend.
      [1913 Webster]

            Higher yet that star ascends.         --Bowring.
      [1913 Webster]

            I ascend unto my father and your father. --John xx.
                                                  17.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Formerly used with up.
         [1913 Webster]

               The smoke of it ascended up to heaven. --Addison.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. To rise, in a figurative sense; to proceed from an
      inferior to a superior degree, from mean to noble objects,
      from particulars to generals, from modern to ancient
      times, from one note to another more acute, etc.; as, our
      inquiries ascend to the remotest antiquity; to ascend to
      our first progenitor.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: To rise; mount; climb; scale; soar; tower.
        [1913 Webster]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

113 Moby Thesaurus words for "ascend":
   advance, arise, aspire, back, back up, bank, budge,
   buss the clouds, cant, careen, chandelle, change, change place,
   circle, clamber, climb, come up, crest, curl upwards, decline,
   descend, dip, drop, ebb, escalade, escalate, fall, fall away,
   fall off, float, flow, gain altitude, get over, get up, go,
   go around, go downhill, go round, go sideways, go up, go uphill,
   grade, grow up, gyrate, hoick, incline, keel, lean, levitate, lift,
   list, loom, mount, move, move over, pitch, plunge, progress, rake,
   rear, rear up, regress, retreat, retrogress, rise, rise up, rotate,
   run, scale, scale the heights, scramble, shelve, shift, shin,
   sidle, sink, slant, slope, soar, spin, spiral, spire,
   stand on tiptoe, stand up, stir, stream, subside, surge, surmount,
   swag, swarm up, sway, sweep up, tilt, tip, top, tower, travel, up,
   upclimb, upgo, upgrow, upheave, uprear, uprise, upspin, upstream,
   upsurge, upswarm, upwind, wane, whirl, zoom