Doing hills can be a challenge and especially for those not experienced at it. While I was, (and am still) learning the technique I wrote down the advice I got from various sources. I thought it may be of some value to some so hear they are.

The Secret to hills.

the more you ride in your area, the stronger you will get

you have to be very fit to live in the mountains. You need to be able to make a lot of power aerobically, and clear lactic acid well, and recover a bit while still under a certain amount of pressure.
It took me more than one season to build myself up, so be patient. 
If there is a trick to climbing, then it is simply accepting that there is no such thing as "casual" riding in the mountains.

"Be patient. Don't try to charge up the hill as fast as you can. Go at a pace, no matter how slow that is, that allows you to be . . . smooooooth. No gasping for air, nice smooth breathing. No clutching the handlebars spasmodically and mashing your legs erratically, nice smooth circles.


Relax. Body and mind. Try to keep your upper body relaxed, hands loose, SMILE! Focus mentally on just moving the pedals round and round and round and . . . so on. Don't look up at the top of the hill. This is always demoralizing. Especially when you look up and realize you can't *see* the top of the hill.


Shift to a low gear early. If you find that it's not enough of a challenge, you can always get in a bigger gear. When I confronted that final climb on Saturday, I didn't even bother . . . I just put that baby right into the great-granny gear, and started plugging away. 

If you need to, get off the bike, but be aware that walking up a steep hill (especially in stiff-soled bike shoes) is not much less painful than riding up it. I stopped twice on that climb, for about 30 seconds each, to stretch my back. I didn't walk, just hopped back on the bike and continued to climb. Those two quick breaks felt *fantastic* and without them, my back may well have protested too much for me to be able to finish the climb.

But the long-term bottom line, as others have mentioned, is that the single biggest secret to being a good hill climber is to just keep going out and climbing the hills!


------------------------------

Comfortable" is another word you will no longer need to describe your riding
it isn't easy and it always hurts, so I would have to say that the real secret is just not minding it.

that's right. You have to find that pace that you can maintain for an extended time. One where your HR levels off and does not keep going up. 

Once you go beyond that pace, the clock is ticking. On a mountain there are not alot of places where you get a chance to recover, so once you go anaerobic, it is just a matter of time. 

That's why I said earlier that it is important to learn how to recover a little while still being under pressure.
That skill will help you when you misjudge your effort on the way up.

One way to "cheat" on super steep hills is to zig zag back and forth. So if you're absolutely at your limit, you can ride sideways across the road to get momentum, and then turn back across, repeating until you recover. It ain't pretty, but it beats walking. The downside is that your effective rate of ascent drops even lower, so you'll spend even more time on the hill.

Some random advice from a guy who can climb pretty well but not "oh my god look at him go" fast:

Tip 1- Breathe deliberately as you climb. Don't let your breathing rhythm go nuts. Once you can't regulate your breath, all kinds of bad things happen. Breath deeply in and forcefully out.


Tip 2- Know that it hurts for everyone. Some people ride up hills faster than others, but everyone's legs and lungs are burning just the same. I always feel like this helps me- particularly when being dropped.

Tip 3- Find recovery points on the climb. When you're climbing long hills you'll find there are often stretches that are almost flat or even a little downhill. Sometimes you get a nice tailwind through a switchback or around a turn. Treat these little reprieves as recovery opportunities. Which leads me to... 

Tip 4- Use interval training to improve the speed of your recovery. You can do them on flat land or on climbs, it doesn't matter as long as you go all-out hard then really rest. Intervals are good for those days when you only have a little bit of time to ride. If you do them right, you'll absolutely dread doing your interval workout.

Tip 5- If you have a heart rate monitor, figure out exactly where you go anarobic. Understand that you have a limited amount of time that your body can handle being anaerobic before you start to shut down. So save the anaerobic efforts for when the hill really demands it.

Tip 6- Keep your gaze ahead of you. Don't look down at the road. This is always good advice whether you're going up, down, or flat but while climbing it makes the hill seem do-able rather than just an infinite incline that just won't quit. You don't have to look at the top of the hill. Find a mile marker or a tree or something and concentrate on making to that object. Once you get there find another one a little further up the hill.
Hi,
A mental trick that worked for me on a recent mountain century (Mtn of misery...steep 3 mile hill at the end), was to be aware of my pain, but listen to the background noise. There were birds singing and the breeze blowing through the trees. It was almost meditative, and made my 45 minute climb seem not so long as the previous 3x I did it.


Every so often I would stand to pedal for 3 strokes. But instead of a smooth pedal, I would push down, and hold while coasting, repeat 2x, then sit and get back into the groove. Gives you a little stretch of the back, uses the quads a little differently, and helps your head.

Early on a big hill, I would put it into that really low gear (39x34...cheap man's triple), and, as others mentioned, just slowly grind away. I only attack hills that can be climbed in less than 2 minutes.

Enjoy the satisfaction you will have when you conquer those big hills that are killing you now!


I thought of one other thing that helps me when I'm suffering up a climb. Come up with a climbing mantra. I say under my breath (and so no one can hear me) "quick-round-strong" over and over again. Even I think it sounds like B.S. when I say it but it helps me remember how I want my pedals to spin. 

Repeating anything out loud will keep you from going completely anaerobic.

Nice post, thanks! I feel guilty calling what we have around here hills when I see what some of you ride up, LOL!

Nice, thx.

Good post.

Damned by faint praise.

But seriously: nice post.

Great post!

I think the tip on breathing is spot on.

Bob

Best advice I ever got: "keep pedaling."

Nice. I like the part about the spinning at your own pace. I used to be more concerned with my speed than with my cadence, and the cadence became the rule. As we get stronger, our speed picks up as our cadence remains the same in a higher gear.

good post, I especially agree about the mental exercise aspect.

The stand up and pedal and rest a bit while bike is coasting or near standstill I've used lots when I first started biking up hills.
For me, I automatically repeat names of people that I've had good memories with in my head, smile a little, and keep going.

great tips! I struggle with climbing every time I go out. Living in San Francisco, every ride over 40 miles has 3,000 feet of climbing. and riding with fast guys, I have to train hard just to keep up. I'm not a climber so I train on a bike that is a little heavier than my big ride climbing bike. and get the lightest wheels you can for your climbing bike.

Uhh...the pace that I can stay smooth at on the big monster 5 miles out isn't fast enough to keep the bike upright.

OTOH, it's the only hill I've done a "give up and walk" on lately, and there are a few on my short rides that used to be really daunting.

Great advice. Wish I had been up to it yesterday.. We did a 90 miler.. Of which about 20 miles were mountains.. About once a week, I go up into the mountains , but usually not 20 miles worth of mountain riding.. That ride beat the crap out of me.. I did fine on the first 16 or so miles which had the greater grade compared to the last 3 or 4 where the grade was likely about 6 %.
Those last few miles killed me in spite of lots of water and power bars.. How often do we have to do those 20 milers in order to have enough endurance to always be up to them. About 2 miles from the top my guads muscle's began cramping. Maybe nutrition. I was so exhausted, when I started to walk, I had not the stamina to reach around and get my cleat covers from my jersey pocket.
At the top we stopped at a cafe and had a sandwich and a beer.. My muscles were fine coming down. Maybe what did not help, I am getting over a cold and maybe still suffer some of the effects of a cold. I sure hope enough practice at climbing will reduced the chances of cramping, because they were so bad, I was screaming in pain.

Well said. I found most of the things you said to be spot on with my hill training I did a few months ago. There's nothing like getting to the top of a mountain for your first time!

THE(singular) secret has 26 different ideas within it? Counted em.

There's always one, isn't there.

OP, nice compilation of tips.

thanks for posting this. i was just planning on searching for climbing tips today.

Excellent climbing tips! One thing I tried last weekend was not looking at my speed on the computer (well, I switched it to another mode, if the speed is displayed I'm going to look). The idea was to not worry about going a certain speed and just pay attention to all of the stuff you talked about (breathing, smooth circles, recovery points on the climb). Sounds kind of silly, but I swear it made climbing so much easier.

". so on. Don't look up at the top of the hill. This is always demoralizing. Especially when you look up and realize you can't *see* the top of the hill. "

Well said..

A tip I didn't see is to try to take switchbacks a little wide since the apex of the turn is usually steeper.

Thanks for all the replies, I hope it will be helpful to some. The Mantra is the one I need to use a lot. Quick-round-strong, Quick-round-strong, Quick-round-strong. Over and over. It seems to keep my mind off the impossible task and on something I can do, set a pace for myself. The other thing is to look for times when I can recover a bit on the climb. I still like to refer to the list.

A tip I learned while mountain biking is to take switchbacks a little wide since the apex of the turn is usually steeper.

Good one! (see 2 posts above yours)

OK, OK. I'll add it to the list.

I copied and pasted, just messin' with you man!

I don't have anything to add, but these are some good tips.