Congrats and good luck with the commute.

I'm in the same boat as you in regards to being a new commuter with short commute and a nasty climb at the end of the ride. I have a 100 ft plus vertical climb in a very short distance which comes right after 1.5 miles of climbing up out of a river valley. So even though the ride to work is basically coasting for 4 miles, the ride home is a bit of a pain.

I'm always running through Google maps looking for alternate routes to at least take the edge off the final climb. Of course I'm mostly commuting for fitness so the adding a lot of miles on the return trip is my goal.