Hey Peter,
Sorry for the late,
I didn`t climb with a very steep slope yet, but for normal to medium slope (some 1:10 or 1:
, the bike is very comforntable and efficient to ride, front wheel rarely raise up and rear traction is good. (well, at least for my setting.)
For the downhill performance, this is the 2nd short travel 29er I own, the former is a specialized camber with 110mm rear travel, fs027 has just 100mm with 165x38 sgock shock. Actually the Camber feels slightly better on DH, more subtle for small stuff. But the camber doesn`t corner as good as the 027. If the 027 have the full 120mm rear or a pair of beefier tyres it may outperform the camber on dh easily I think.
The 027 is laterally stiff, compared to most other bikes I`ve own. Include some good euduro bikes.
The bike is actually a XC ~trail bike, I recommend a fork with 120mm travel max. Pike 29er 120mm is good, but it will add 10 more mm compare to a reba 120. It will slacken the bike a little bit but also impact the climbings.
Hope this helps.