I would say stop pressing all the way down on the pedal. When the pedal is all the way down, you are "asking" the HST to give you speed, not torque. When you press only part way down, you "ask" the HST to give torque, not speed. A little oversimplified, but basically true.
I suspect that the HST is going over relief (to much load) when going up the hill. Then the operator stops and shifts to 4wd (which will help a little) and then re-engaged the HST (begins pressing the pedal). Since the pedal is not all the way down (beginning to be depressed) you get more torque out of the HST. That combined with the 4WD could allow you to climb the hill. This is all speculation since I have not seen it happen.
I would say keep your RPM's up, only engage the HST pedal 1/2 way, low gear and 4wd. If that does not work, you are doing too much. Just my two cents.