What Torque were you pulling?
On a climb I tried to maintain Max Continuous, you could not pull max torque, not enough pedal. It was always a trade-off.
What Torque was available?
On the torque gauge, plenty. Never had any problem power wise. T53-17
It was more like pull till you hit the left pedal stop.
I notice the IAS dropped right off....what was the Yaw Pedal position....well forward left pedal?
I wasn't watching my airspeed and let it fall to zero, left pedal is right on the stop, responses to inputs are too slow, by the time it wants to respond to the full left pedal the nose is already gone and has to much momentum. At that point you need to move away from the hill, pick up speed and when the timing is right you reapply full left pedal while reducing collective and it should stop spinning within a turn, you need patience.
Did the Nr droop any at all?
No not at all, problem was trying not to overspeed anything.
Ever hit the collective up stop?
No never. The easy part was the climb up, the hardest part was coming back down.
JD