mostly bad advice on first page, IMO...

I imagine you have some stress going up a flight of stairs from biking so much... its why you made it up the hill the first tries, but its harder now.

1. On hard hills, your walking speed is as fast as 40 rpm at 26 gear inches (1:1), so if you can't pedal any faster, get off and walk.

2. breaking yourself on the last hill can add a full day's recovery time easy to the next time you can ride... so only attempt it when you know you won't ride for a few days. Go ahead and step off the bike midway through the hill with some energy still left... try to make it 20 feet past the last time on every attempt.

3. If you have a heavy bike, or weigh a bit, the following technique works well for me, and uses your bike's momentum energy to your advantage. Start in the strongest possible gear on your middle chainring while on the flat part leading into the hill, and pedal as fast as you can. Shift into a lower gear whenever you drop below 80 rpm. Cross over to the small crank around 3rd gear. If I can't maintain rpms well over 60, I get off and walk. -- If you are hauling a lot of weight, you can't accelerate uphill.