If you ride a MTB, it's a given that you will have to climb a hill. What's not a given is that everyone knows how to climb a hill. This makes the difference between you riding up a hill or pushing your bike up it.

There are two ways you can approach a climb, and which option you take depends on how big it's going to be and how strong you are. Regardless of which method you use, the most important thing is to pick the right line. On a technical or rocky climb, you want to pick the easiest, smoothest line up. It's hard enough without making it unnecessarily harder!

Spinning

Spinning literally means pedaling fast and is the most efficient way to climb a hill and allows you to get more out of your legs. It involves pedaling fast in an easier gear, this means you have to choose a gear that you find relatively easy to push up the hill.

Speaking in technical terms, spinning is high cadence pedaling which relates to revolutions per minute (or RPMs). You should aim for a cadence of between 80 and 90 RPM but of course, if the hill is steep enough you'll end up spinning at lower RPM.

Climbing is mostly about gear selection, and gear selection is about finding a gear that allows you to pedal relatively easily without losing traction or grinding to a halt. When approaching a climb, you need to select the front gear that matches the terrain (we cover this in Basic Gear Changing). Why? Changing the front cog during climbing at a slow cadence usually doesn't work. You usually end up having to walk the bike if you try that one! However, as we discussed in Basic Gear Changing, your rear gears can be changed while climbing to finetune your gearing.

When you start a climb, you want to have a strong pedal spin going. This makes it easier to keep the momentum going as you climb and means that you'll have a controlled tempo that will last the climb.

The other consideration in climbing is traction. If the trail is rocky enough or steep enough, your rear wheel will lose traction and/or your front wheel will start trying to lift up. To counter this, you need to start thinking about weight distribution and spreading your bodyweight over the bike.

To get rear wheel traction, you need to slide your backside forward onto the nose of the saddle. Comfortable? No! Effective? Yes! Result? Your weight shifts so that it is vertically over the rear wheel, instead of slightly behind it. You then have more traction.

To stop the front wheel lifting, sliding forward on the saddle helps but you may also need to lean forward over the handlebars. This moves your upper body weight over the front wheel which helps to keep it down.

When the climb just gets too steep, you may need to get out of the saddle and power at some stage. This depends on how your legs are feeling but at the end of the day, sometimes we just need to get off and walk. No shame in that!

Oh, and remember to breathe. There's nothing funnier than watching someone trying to climb a hill who forgets to breathe, turns purple and falls off the bike. Probably not much fun for them though!

Grinding

If you've got strong legs or a short climb, then grinding is something that will get you up a hill faster as long as traction isn't a problem. Grinding produces the most power but is less efficient.

To grind, you simply choose a bigger gear and get out of the saddle. By getting out of the saddle, your weight will automatically move forward which fixes the front and rear wheel issues. The problem is that if the climb is too long, you will tire and have to sit back down. If this happens, you need to try to get down through the rear gears quick enough to keep momentum going. If not, you'll stop.

During long climbs, it sometimes helps to combine spinning and grinding, especially on those hills that have steep sections along the way. When you get to those steeper sections, you most likely can use the same gear to get out of the saddle and grind. This also helps to give your legs a momentary reprieve!