It's the bike and the rider -- smaller riders have a better strength to weight ratio; heavier bikes make things much more difficult. Before I set my bike up for Randonneuring, with lights, rack, heavier wheels etc. I used to spin up anything with my 53/39 ... once I added the weight to the bike, I changed over to a compact crankset. That made a huge difference, but it's still harder to push 35 pounds of bike & crap up the hill than < 20 pounds.

Having said all that, my hill-climbing style is still the same, albeit at a slower pace with the Compact Crankset -- I start out climbing from a standing position. I can stay standing for a long time, if need be, letting my body weight push the pedals. I save a couple of gears for when I want to "rest" -- sit down, slow down -- then get up and go again. I find that by splitting my time sitting and standing, it makes it easier for me. My lets don't get as tired as if I tried to do the entire hill sitting. In my regular rides, I'll do a lot of standing just for training purposes. Standing into a headwind is harder than climbing a hill, in my opinion.

The other thing that I do is more psychological -- after all, with a lower gear, as long as you don't run out of gears, the only thing different about climbing and riding on the flat is your speed, assuming all else being equal. So ... I ignore the frustration with riding <10 mph vs 18 mph. In fact, the physics show that at a slower speed going up the hill, more of your energy is actually being used to move the bike forward. At a faster speed, much less of your energy moves the bike -- the wind resistance goes up with the cube of the speed.

Dave.