Some of hill climbing is just *doing* it. If you have to walk your bike, that's ok. Just keep trying. If you're not used to hills, your lungs and heart don't work as effectively on hills as they do on the flat. Generally you can bail out and walk up a hill at any time... and even walking the bike will help you get better at hills.

This does not mean I'd let someone take away my granny gears mind . I do use them on hills, and I'm getting better at using them. It's a skill and it takes time to learn. And I won't learn if I don't practice.

I *do* attack hills aggressively early on. In one case, I have a small downhill right before a 5% grade. If I can use the downhill to get into a higher gear at my normal cadence, I have a wider range of low gears available for the big hill. Time the downshifts right so I'm maintaining a good cadence, and I go up further. It's taken me a fair bit of time to learn when to downshift to keep my cadence up so my legs don't hurt or turn to rubber on me.