You can't avoid hills where I live! But, I also find it very difficult to stand and climb on the big ones. First, it was a balance issue and the fact that i was in too low of a gear. Now I will stand on little rollers, but I find it really doesn't get me that much more speed (1-2 mph) going up the little rollers. It raises my HR more than I like, too. On a really steep climb I stay seated. Usually near the top, where poeple tell you to get up out of the saddle, I don't have the strength to do that. I'm talking about 12-18% grades here... I focus on even, steady pedal strokes, my breathing, and usually I try to remember what I do when mountain biking. I do gear up at the beginning of a long and/or steep climb. While I will be in the granny gear, I will stay in a pretty high cog until I start feeling the need to shift down. That way I actually have some gears to shift down to. I have never had to walk up a hill using this strategy, including some really challenging ones in Austria. I don't really care how fast I am going, but now I can climb medium hills at 10-11 mph and really steep ones at 6-8. I did see 5 a few times in Europe, though.