I am a hill-o-phobe myself, I see myself in that mr Old Fearing Hills! That might just be my Indian Name. Thanks for writing all that though, I actually found it a little inspiring.

Another thought for 'so much of it is a mind game'. I have young boys (currently 7-12yo) that I am trying to raise right in the cult of cycling, so it is a little bit of a milestone when each of them "finally climbs Fletcher Parkway" or can say "I've conquered Fanita". When I ride loops from the house, I have climbs that destroy me every time. And yet, if I bring a boy along, it's easy peasy. The reason is that I slow down to their speed. So I try to keep perspective in my head, (almost) any hill is climbable. The real limit for me is about 3mph in my 34/34 low gear, any slower and balance becomes an issue. I don't know how to translate that into percentage grade where 34/34 @ 3mph takes my sustainable wattage though. Maybe like 10% or so? I dunno; even though I'm an "Old Fearing Hills" I don't have a good feel for judging grades by eye.