Hi Amyelice! Welcome!

Like Mimi said, learning to work with those gears will help a lot. DH is FINALLY getting the idea that working in as hard a gear as he can stand is the way to go -- keep pedaling pretty easy, without being too easy. You'll soon see what I mean by that! There's easy pedaling, and then there's that one gear lighter that's like, crazy pedaling!

I have one of those nemesis hills this summer, and some days I can do it, but some days I can't. Yesterday was the latter, darn it! I persevered -- stop and rest if you need to, then tackle a few more feet. Check out Jiffer's thread on the evil hill climb in the "Open Topic" forum. I was SO glad to see her pictures, cuz that's exactly what I look like when I ride up my most evil hills! Eventually, you'll be able to do the whole thing. Something else that I've found helps me with hills -- better if I don't go up them "cold," but instead have a few miles under my shorts already.

If your bike has been sitting around a while, it might be worth taking it to a bike shop to be serviced -- make sure all the moving parts are moving the way they should, and are well lubricated. The bike shop where I have since purchased three bikes (one for DH) was happy to do this for me (for a fee, of course) cuz I'm sure it helped get me hooked on this happy hobby!

Karen in Boise