My bike with the 11-34 mountain rear dérailleur has a compact on the front. My other bike has a triple and an 11-28 on the back.
I can climb almost anything on both of these; the goal is to get up the road and I do go slowly! But, unless I am on a mountain, I rarely use the lowest gear on the bike with the mountain gears. I've walked twice in 15 years and both of those times I kind of gave up... I could have done it.