Originally Posted by jgwilliams

First of all, lucky you living in such a stunningly beautiful part of the country. My daughter lives in an area of Scotland that certainly rivals the Lake District but is far less accessible (for me, at least).
I'd say, if it was me, stick with the gears you've got. The trouble is that everyone is different so what works for one won't for another. My feeling is, thought, since you are clearly very fit that it shouldn't take you long before you're finding those hills relatively easy. Not that they're ever going to be a breeze, but that's my three ha'pence worth.
I know what you mean about every ride involving a climb. I live in the Surrey hills and you can't go out of my front door without hitting a hill. Only the hills here are on quite a different scale. I have 52/36 front and 11-26 rear and I can just manage the worst hills around here which, I'm told, briefly ramp up to 20%. The dilemma you have is that if you gear your bike totally towards the hills you're going to compromise for other parts of your ride. I put that 11-26 cassette on my bike because for most of my riding I like the ratios to be fairly close so I compromised for the hills. You'll have to decide what compromise works best for you but until you've started to get used to the hills you won't really know. That's why I'd hold off on spending a shed load of money at this stage - as long as the challenge isn't putting you off, of course.
Are you planning to do the Fred Whitton Challenge any time soon? A third of an Everest in a single day.