Actually, there is really no way anyone could accurately determine the slope of a hill from pictures unless you were able to catch it at the right angle.
I can provide three pictures of hills (with Hummers in them, of course) that look just as steep, but were well within the limits of the H1's abilities.
Here's one pic that looks steeper than it is (Forest Road 42 in Phoenix):
http://www.azhog.org/jan_2004_box_ca...-01800200-.jpg
And for a interesting pictorial, here's pics of the same hill (Saguaro Lake Cove #1 in Phoenix) from different views:
From the bottom-
http://www.azhog.org/april2004_hummerhelps/IMG_0037.jpg
From the top-
http://www.azhog.org/april2004_hummerhelps/IMG_0050.jpg
From the side-
http://www.azhog.org/april2004_hummerhelps/IMG_0043.jpg
The last picture shows the true angle of the hill. The other two don't.