Class 5: Hands, long fall, ropes for safety only (climb using hands and feet on the rock). Class-5 is serious rock climbing with ropes, but you don't hang on the equipment or use it to pull yourself up the rock. There could be handholds, maybe not, and they wouldn't always be where you needed them most. You probably would fall on Class-5, and the fall would be long and result in sudden death unless your belayer saved your life with the rope. You wouldn't do it with your hands in your pockets, you would want a rope, and you would be a bit too puckered up to whistle a happy song. Class-5 climbing often is referred to as "free climbing," and climbing 5th-class routes without a rope often is referred to as "3rd-classing the route" (climbing as if it were 3rd class and you didn't need a rope).

Class-5 is graded according to the technical difficulty: Under the American system (Yosemite Decimal System):

• Class-5.1 is easy 5th-class
• Class-5.7 is moderate 5th-class
• Class-5.10 is hard 5th-class
• Class-5.14 is impossible 5th-class (at least for me).