Personally I would take shorter steps but more of them Realspeed, if you were driving up a steep hill in your car you would change down the gears and get the revs up. More torque and less speed…
Can’t say, I take reasonably short steps anyway (compared to how I used to walk) I also live in a very flat area so hills are not an option.
I try to walk 5 to 8km each day though the recent wet weather put the kibosh on that.
If anybody is interested there is a phone app called “Simply Walking” which doesn’t share your walk data unlike most of these apps. It records your walk on a map as well as graphically and can use kilometres or the more archaic measurements.
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When I first started working in central London, my job often involved delivering stuff on foot. To make life interesting I would sometimes pick a person out some way in front and and a finish line , perhaps a lamp post or a phone box, then race them to it, long strides only, no running. Of course they had no idea I was racing them but I must have looked a complete tw@t speeding past them at the last second. 
These days I’m a bit slower but I would say walking up hill I would be inclined (get it?) to take smaller steps, long strides up a hill could look just as ridiculous as they did in my youth.
Wan’t it John Cleese who did the ministry of silly walks? 
It was and that’s how it could look I reckon. :-p
Yes! That is true to a point. Dunno why. Maybe the muscles you use to walk backwards are more fresh?. I think a long stride is better than short steps.
If taking shorter steps, try not to make it look like mincing. 
Edit: I’m going on a walk today. I haven’t done much walking lately and it exercises different muscles to cycling. Part of the walk will involve going up a steep hill. I’ll try a few different pace lengths if nobody is watching. 
These are a couple of hills I walked up. Very difficult to change the natural stride but I think the leading foot meets the ground earlier due to the upward gradient, so steps are probably a bit shorter. Trying to make them longer felt awkward…
I think stride length would be determined by the steepness of the gradient…Those hills would be described as ‘undulations’ on some of my walks Mart…
If I may…Running up hills is more energy efficient than walking, because the amount of time each leg has to bear your full weight is drastically reduced, and momentum is added to the equation…
Photos often can’t show the length and gradient of hills but anyway, they were the ones I walked up and gave thought to the length of pace. I have been pedalling up them for years. Not sure if I still could but might give it a try sometime.
I can’t (or wouldn’t) risk running due to a kneecap that I broke into three bits when I was in my forties. It gave trouble for a number of years and running might cause it to start again.
Best thing about cycling and walking (for me) is that neither activity jars the bones as much as running.
Oh God no Mart, I wasn’t suggesting for one minute that you should attempt to run up hills…
Funny really but the but the last bit of knee pain to disappear before it finally went away altogether was when walking downhill. I suppose having to hold the bodyweight back. At the time, I got water on the other knee because of not being able use the broken one all that well.
I’d just started running with friends before I fell and broke the knee.
Can’t say for certain on pavement but on a hilly piece of ground, I go at a sideways angle instead of directly upward. Of course that won’t work each leg equally but it’s still easier to get up a mountain that way.
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Realspeed,
It always depends on what your objectives are. If you are looking for efficiency and saving energy to get top the top of the hill, then short strides are the way to go. If you are looking at it as a form of exercise, then longer strides are much more beneficial in terms of # of muscles being recruited to work, and working each of the muscles through a larger range of motion. The later, when not overdoing it, is also very good for your joint health.
Just a thought,
Ken
Good advice there Ken… 
I’ve been somewhat of an expert at climbing hills and usually jog up them.
And loads more…
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It’s down to common sense!
I’ve happy memories of walking the Cornish Coastal path some years back… beautiful but a long way down if you get it wrong 
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A walk I would love to do Chilli, tis a beautiful county… 
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Foxy, That hill looks a bit familiar!
I like to zig-zag up steep hills - judging by the shape of the path up my favourite local hill, lots of folk have zig-zagged their way up it for many years!
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Wow, this is an old thread, I wonder if Realspeed has made it to the top of that hill yet? 
I always lean forward a bit and take shorter steps, it helps you keep your balance and you can pump your legs to lift your body weight in a shorter time
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