Climbing

After a while you will get to know your truck and be able to estimate what gear to be in based on weight and hill and go down with just jakes and possibly light braking the whole way down. This also holds true for automatics, set a gear, set in manual mode, and it should stay as long as you aren't trying to over rpm the engine.

Until then, don't be afraid to start down slow. You can go down a hill too slow as many times as you want, but you might only go down too fast once.

 

Wolf Creek pass is out my back door so I have to run it often. It can be blue skies and sunshine in Pagosa and a white out once you start climbing the pass.
Another fun one is Durango to Ouray over Red Mountain pass. I try to avoid that one if I can.

 

I've ran it a ton with McLane and also oilfield heavy haul. It wasn't bad with a 10 speed and 15-20 in the van, but it's another beast hauling heavy and an 8 speed