Originally Posted by galen_52657
Or...my super-human power output is deflecting the entire frame causing excessive slack on the bottom half of the timing chain.....!!!
There might be more of that coming into play on supersteep climbs than you realize, particularly if you two are tossin' the bike side to side.
Also, with regard to the cam effect you're seeing on your sync chain, before moving your rings to the inside of the spider you might want to read Sheldon's article on centering timing rings:
http://sheldonbrown.com/synchain.html