Happy Climbing!

think ducks on water

A friend gave me advice that always worked for me.

Make sure you are taking in full breaths and letting all of the air out. Just like in weight lifting, you exhale on the hardest part of the motion to help give it your last push.

I used to shift gears way too late. By the time I switched I was already really struggling & about to fall. One day I shifted before it started getting hard & then kept down shifting before I started sturggling too much. Next thing you know I was at the top.

Good luck!

Prepare your gearing before you start climbing - particularly your front chain ring

If you are sitting and stand up, shift up (harder) on the rear derailler.

If you are standing and sit down, shift down (easier) on the rear derailler.

If you are standing, straighten your body (relax and stretch your arms appropriately) so you are standing vertically on the cranks like a stepper exercise machine.  This will maintain a 45/55% weight balance on the wheels.  Don't bend and lean forward on the handlebars because you're just weighting the front wheel.

            If your talking about hills on single track mtb trails, short but steep !! then one word comes to mind.. MOMENTUM !  MOMENTUM !  MOMENTUM !

                                                    Hop, in Indiana

again i do all the above but for that extra grip to get the power up the hills i make sure my elbows are tucked in , but not tensed up, and i push my butt back on the seat to get the back wheel to dig in.

so many times i see people climbing hunched foward getting no weight over the back wheel then coimg to a halt back wheel slipping.

With a hardtail bike hillclimbing (except for extended hill routes) is best done in a somewhat standing position.  I say somewhat standing as you need to make sure you are in a position to move your body weight forward or backward as needed to maximize traction.  This usually puts you into a somewhat crouched-while-standing-on-the-pedals position.  If you feel the front wheel come up off the ground you shift weight forward to keep it on the ground.  If you feel the back tire spin and loose traction you put your weight back.  You have to constantly shift forward and back on most hills, as the traction is constantly changing.  It becomes a sort of dance, especially when you factor in any obstacles, such as tree roots, rocks, other riders, etc.  The key to hardtail climbing is finesse (come to think of it, that is the key for any riding done on a hardtail....)

 On a full-suspension bike climbs are mostly done in a seated position to take advantage of the suspension creating maximum traction.  For just about all suspension designs having your weight in the saddle tends to let the suspension action push the rear wheel into the ground, allowing the mechanical advantage of the suspension take up the work of finding the grip of the rear wheel.  You can focus more on keeping the front down when needed.  The suspension also handles the typical trail obstacles as well.  Standing to climb on a full-suspension can require different types of technique, depending on the suspension design and if you have a platform-pedal or lockout shock.  

Someone here previously posted to stay relaxed and not rock the bike.  I agree with staying relaxed in the upper body and pull when needed, but I have had good results by some rocking side-to-side (similar to road sprinters) on the handlebars, almost a levering action while climbing.  This of course works well with flat bars and bar ends, and also on less technical climbs.   

My preferred style is to sit and spin on my full suspension rig. Change down before you are pedalling too hard and change up when you are pedalling to fast.

Oh, and don't forget the only reason you do the hard yards up a hill is so you ride flat out back down again!

 Interested by Bokchoi Cowboy's post; i've never considered the difference between a hardtail and full sus, but then I've always been a hard tail trail rider.

 I don't know your fitness level, but if you don't climb a lot try doing some fast interval workouts to get your body used to short, intense periods of biking.

This is a highly effective technique before a drastic increase in effort.  My lightweight 8 (rowing) would do this before the start and for the 5 strokes before final sprint and it drastically increased the speed and length of our sprint.  So much so that we ended up adding a second even faster sprint with 100m to go to make sure we drained the tank.

I cant believe I never thought to apply this to my biking.

One thing I have learned, so far, is that as long as you are still moving you cannot go too slowly. On a steep or long hill climb I usually get as much momentum as I can in the beginning and as my speed dies off I down shift early and often. Once I am down to the granny gears (usually my lowest or second to lowest gear) I will start to think about rhythm (cadence) and balance. I find that I can out climb most of my riding buddies using a slow and steady technique. At 2mph you can stay on the bike and in the lowest year, sitting down (full susp) I can just about climb all day!

I have the same problem as the OP.

The quote above is really helpful to me because I PANIC.  That is exactly my problem.  The uphills combined with sand and rubble and stones and tree rootes and rocks... I don't want to be clipped in and try to climb that stuff.  I just have to keep practicing!