[Shawn] That's a nice pile of gold there.
Here we go.
Ten. Twelve.
-[Chris] Twenty. -Forty.
-[Chris] Fifty. -[Shawn] Sixty.
-[Chris] Seventy. -[man] Ninety.
[Shawn] One hundred and sixty.
Two hundred.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] The Bering Sea is making an offer
the fleet can't refuse,
and everyone wants a seat at the table.
Woo!
[narrator] Nome's Top Boss...
[Shawn] We're moving, man.
We're gonna get a lot of gold this year.
[narrator] expanding his organization
into new territory.
-[man 1] Ooh. -[man 2] Yeah.
The gold's great.
[narrator] The young gangster...
[Chris] When I got here, I had nothing.
[narrator] Looking to take this town over.
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] The Wiseguy...
[Kris] This is gonna revolutionize mining
as we know it.
[narrator] unpredictable
and capable of doing anything.
Stress. [screams]
[bleep] breaking down.
We're lighting everything on fire.
[narrator] The Don...
I love it when our plan comes together.
[narrator] who could be on his last leg...
My heart's [bleep] up again.
[narrator] but won't give in.
Keep chugging up that gold.
[narrator] The Associate...
I figured I would just like get you here
-before I told you how hard it was. -[laughs]
[narrator] trying to run the business
while an absent boss looks over her shoulder.
Emily has been blowing me up today.
This is text number 30.
[narrator] And the Made Man...
[Zeke] We're going for it.
[narrator] looking to move up the ranks
with a new crew...
[man] All in [indistinct]
and new digs.
[man 1] Everything is inside.
All our gear. All our tools.
[man 2] All our high-tech stuff.
[narrator] And if you think any miner
is afraid to ice the competition...
[Vernon] Yippee ki-yay.
-[grunts] -[screams]
-Woo! -Yeah!
[narrator] forget about it.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] On the frigid Nome coast...
Wow. It is actually really cold out today.
You could see my eyelashes starting to form icicles.
[narrator] A young gun is ready to take Nome by storm.
[Chris] All my life here, I've been dredging.
And every time I wake up,
I think about gold already.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Carrying on the family legacy,
Chris McCully is looking to make
his own mark on the Bering Sea
and blow the rest of the fleet
out of the icy water.
When I turned 19, I moved to Nome
and I just said [bleep] it,
started gold mining.
My dad inspired me to do it.
My dad, Dave McCully,
he's an old-timer here in Nome.
He started all this...
Well, he's one of the early guys
that started this offshore dredging.
One day he said, "Do you wanna go dive for gold?"
And I said, "Hell, yeah."
I've been diving in Nome for a decade now.
I helped Kris Kelly a couple years ago.
-[Kris] Yeah, baby. -Yeah.
[chuckles]
But I'm here mostly helping my dad out.
Never let fear and common sense
stand in the way of a great adventure.
[chuckles]
Just because I am the next generation,
it doesn't mean everything is handed to me.
People need to understand my dad is not that person.
"Oh, he's got a wealthy dad.
It was given to him." No, no.
When I got here, I had nothing.
Believe it or not, I got fired off my dad's company.
In that sense, my dad, in a way,
taught me how to be strong
and not to complain too much
and always be humble
and have a great attitude in life.
And now I'm one of the...
one of the best gold dredgers out there.
I've had my own operation for a while now,
but this winter, I'm stepping it up.
I wanna pull more gold than everyone out there,
including Shawn.
I'm upgrading my ice mining operation
with new technology.
For this winter, I'm gonna need a hundred ounces
to cover everything for my operation.
But it's all gonna be worth it at the end
when I show the fleet what I'm capable of.
I wanna prove to my dad that I can do this by myself.
My paycheck is out there in the ocean
and all I gotta do is go out and get it.
Here we are.
What's up, boys?
Yeah! Let's make money now.
I'm working on my family's claim.
It's been paying out for years.
So I put together exactly the right team
to make the most of it.
You gotta move swiftly.
I've got a young diver, Wilson Hagedorn.
He's got skills and hunger to crush it.
Push it in and then engine starts.
[engine revs]
[Chris] I've also got Yukon John.
He's a veteran. Everyone knows him
and everyone knows what happened last summer.
[John speaking]
We're gonna deploy this thingy.
John was willing to risk his own life
just to save his dredge.
[Chris speaking]
[John speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[John speaking]
The guy is really hardcore,
and I'm not really worried about him
not committing to the operation a hundred percent.
My boat was saved.
We gotta get [indistinct] today.
That's the main goal.
Looking for puddles of gold.
That's what I look forward to every morning,
every day for the rest of my life.
Ice mining is pretty crazy.
We're gonna have to cut a hole in a thick ice,
put on our wet suit, pump it with hot water,
and jump in the freezing water
about 30, 40 feet.
You could lose air
and not get back to your dive hole on time.
A lot of things could go wrong.
The first dive of the year sets the tone,
and I need this one to be perfect.
[Chris speaking]
[man speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Chris] Okay. I got through to the bottom.
[man] How does your hot water feel?
[Chris speaking]
All right. Let's see what we got here.
[Chris speaking]
[man speaking]
[Chris] Nice composition.
Real rocky.
Wow.
Beautiful stuff.
Okay.
Now we're on the gold.
You see that shiny little thing,
baby, right there.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight.
I see a lot of gold.
That's enough for me to get excited.
Now the mission is I stay on it
and then I go side to side, you know?
It's simple.
You just gotta suck everything up.
Once you see that gold,
you just put your nozzle, bang.
Then it goes in your box
and then down into your wallet.
Ka-ching.
It's definitely gonna pay out.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] While Chris dives into action,
three miles east...
[rock music playing]
Woo!
Hang on.
Oh, yeah.
Nome's kingpin
is determined to hang on to his throne.
[laughs]
[narrator] And this winter...
[Shawn] They say this thing goes.
Let's see this go.
Hell, yeah.
[narrator] He is bringing out the heavy artillery.
[vehicle engine revs]
[laughs]
[narrator] If there's one true boss of mining in Nome,
it's Shawn Pomrenke,
nicknamed Mr. Gold for a reason.
[Shawn] I've never seen that much gold
all at one time.
-Whoa. -Yeah!
[narrator] Season after season...
[Shawn] There's gold under every rock down here.
Woo!
[narrator] no one pulls more ounces
from the Bering Sea.
[Shawn] Looking good.
Oh.
Lots of gold.
We're making some damn money.
Woo!
[upbeat music playing]
[Shawn speaking]
This winter is about
maintaining my dominance in Nome.
I got a two-pronged plan
to make sure that happens.
First, bringing in some new toys,
like this, the SHERP.
It's like a mini tank.
It's gonna get me across
rough ice patches in a hurry.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
[Shawn speaking]
Next, I'm taking a big gamble.
I'm gonna try to expand my empire.
[Shawn speaking]
I know the Tomcod's my baby.
That's where I made my fortune.
But I'm gonna roll the dice.
I'm going to a new area, the East Tract Claim.
It's too deep to reach with an excavator,
so diving's my only chance to check it out.
And the drill logs tell me
there's an ancient river channel
that runs right through it,
just waiting to be tapped.
That's why I'm aiming to get a hundred ounces,
which is a pretty lofty number.
If I'm right, the Pomrenke empire
expands beyond the Tomcod.
If I'm wrong, then I just cost the company a fortune
mining on some pipe dream.
[Shawn speaking]
I'm gonna go ahead and drill a hole,
drop the camera and see what's down here.
Yeah.
X marks the spot.
Here we go.
[dramatic music playing]
Nice thick ice.
Excited to see what's down here.
Hopefully, there's some cobble.
Here we go. Fishy, fishy down.
[Shawn speaking]
I have no idea what this ground looks like.
It could be all sand.
It could be just complete garbage.
But my hunch tells me
there's gonna be a lot of untouched cobble.
That's where the gold hides.
Come on.
That's deep.
Well, some rocks down here.
A big boulder there.
Another big boulder there.
There's definitely some rocks and some big cobbles.
I'm liking what I'm seeing here.
Big rock, big gold.
Hell, we might have dropped right down on it.
The ground looks amazing.
I might have landed right on this channel.
I realize I'm taking a huge risk
not going with the Tomcod,
but I'm convinced this move
is gonna pay out big and keep me on top.
We got our spot picked out.
Now it's time to go get our gears,
get out here on the ice, and get to diving.
This is where we're going right here.
Time to make some money, honey.
[narrator] The freeze is on...
as the fleet looks to shake down
the Bering Sea for gold.
And on the road out of town...
[Kris] Another ice mining season in Nome, Alaska.
This [bleep] reminds me of purgatory.
[narrator] After squeaking by this summer,
"Wiseguy" Kris Kelly
is aiming to come out guns blazing.
[Kris] [indistinct] [bleep] bastard.
I bought an operation that I really couldn't run
and I didn't know anything about.
Had nothing but problems, stress, fights,
craziness, [bleep] breaking down,
not getting enough gold, worrying about my payments.
I'm actually... I'm on the edge right now.
So I gotta make gold all the time
or everything is gonna fall apart on me.
[narrator] The scrappiest fighter in the fleet...
[Kris speaking]
Kris Kelly clawed his way
up from the bottom
with a few less than glamorous turns
along the way.
[bleep]
[narrator] Now after a summer spent
duking it out with Mr. Gold,
the feisty captain's got a gutsy plan
to keep his operation
from sleeping with the fishes.
[Kris] Me and my brother, we don't wanna kill ourselves
underneath the water for eight hours a day.
So I spent all winter long building an underwater robot
that's gonna make me so much [bleep] gold,
I'm gonna be rolling in this [bleep]
I mean, rolling in gold.
This summer, I almost lost everything,
but I made just enough to keep Reaper Nation alive.
So I put that, plus money I don't have,
into an underwater crawler that's coming next week.
This thing will break my losing streak.
With this underwater crawler,
we should be able to get four or five times the gold
than we usually do dredging.
So I'm gonna aim for 50 ounces.
And it better get at least that.
I'm in debt up to my ass paying for this thing.
What can I say?
Here we go again.
I hate ice.
The day I get here,
I'm already counting the days
till I go back home.
[Kris] I don't wanna talk about
how deep I am in debt right now.
I owe money to everybody I know.
-Oh, I know. -You know? Like...
-And I'm in line too. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you're a part of Reaper Nation.
You don't get the money back.
You...
Don't work like that one bit.
Like selling your soul to the devil,
I'll always collect.
[Kris] We've got to backpack all of our stuff.
Auger that we checked out, ready, the Irish flag,
that's super lucky, four packs of cigarettes,
and two thermoses of coffee. We're ready.
-[Andy] And breakfast sandwiches. -And breakfast sandwiches.
And sandwiches. I'm good.
[Kris] And the shovel.
We're gonna go down to Tomcod.
We're gonna assess the situation.
We're gonna prospect some holes.
I got gold to make.
We're gonna get out there and make it.
We're ready to rock and roll.
On the ice we go.
[rock music playing]
The ice out here is gorgeous.
We got really lucky.
[Kris] I know there's really good gold in this area.
I worked here in the summer with my excavator.
I know there's not a lot of overburden
which will be great for my crawler.
So we're gonna have to drill some holes,
send the camera down,
and make sure we get a spot
where I didn't rip it apart.
[machine revs]
Okay. There we go.
Thick ice.
[Kris] Thick ice. Good.
'Cause we need thick ice.
My operation's 4,000 pounds
just for the crawler.
Okay. Get the video out.
The ice is clean.
It looks beautiful. It's nice and thick.
I think I'm gonna be able to take my crawler out deep.
Okay. Throw it in.
Let's see what we got.
[Andy] So what are you seeing so far?
[Kris] I've got cobble.
[Andy] Okay, buddy.
-[chuckles] -Yeah. Beautiful.
Holy [bleep] I'm lucky.
Big fat boulders.
We've got algae growing on the rocks.
-Yeah. -Seems though the excavator
-hasn't been here. -[Andy] Hell, yeah.
[Kris] Hell, that looks like money to me.
[Andy speaking]
Jackpot. The ice is plaque
and it's thick enough that we can get the crawler out here.
Plus, we're on cobble, very first hole.
I know it's got gold.
Maybe this season, everything will go right
and there will be no screw ups.
Allow me to dream.
Yeah, I'm good. This hole right here, man.
Okay. Good, good, good.
[Andy speaking]
Hey, flag it, let's go.
That was... That was fast. That was easy.
I hope all the rest of our season is like this.
Oh, buddy.
We just landed on it.
I'm always excited
when I know I'm gonna make a lot of money.
It's just I'm sick like that.
[engine revs]
[Kris] Today was a success.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] As Kris marks his territory,
back in town...
[upbeat music playing]
I'm back in beautiful Nome again.
Actually, a great day for Nome.
The one drawback is the ice.
I'm looking out here and I see ice.
It's jumbled all to hell and back.
It's really gonna be hard
getting back and forth to our dredge site.
But one way or another,
even if we gotta hump it out there with snow shoes,
we will get out there.
Get off the freaking boat.
I'm sick of your [bleep]
[narrator] The saltiest don in Nome...
Upset about it?
I'm more than [bleep] damn upset about it.
[narrator] Vernon Adkison's long streak of bad luck...
[bleep]
[narrator] was finally broken when he acquired Claim 56.
That's our best cleanup yet.
[narrator] But after a disappointing summer...
I don't see any cobble.
[narrator] he's hoping to mount a comeback
with every beat of his heart.
[upbeat music playing]
I had an attack Sunday night.
They operated on me Monday.
I flew up here on Tuesday.
When I got here,
I had a severe shortness of breath.
I checked into the hospital
here in Nome on Wednesday
and they found out that my damn diaphragm
is not working on the right side.
There was a complication with a swollen heart
because of the tissue damage pressing up against a nerve
that controls my diaphragm.
And so half my diaphragm
doesn't work right at this moment.
Doctors telling me it's gonna come back.
I hope the hell it does.
The last thing any sane person
with a heart problem would do
would be to come to Nome
in the dead of winter and go ice mining.
But gold miners are not sane people.
Least of all, me.
This heart fibrillation problem is no joke
and it's been acting up pretty bad lately.
The main thing I gotta do is not let the stress up here
get to me, and, luckily,
I'm pretty good at that.
Hey, you wanna fight [bleep]
what do you mean I don't know what I'm [bleep] doing?
That individual there is a solid piece of dog crap,
a gutless piece of [bleep]
Go ahead. Come on. Come on.
[man] Hey. Hey.
You'll have a heart attack, you old [bleep]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Little ass [bleep]
[upbeat music playing]
[Vernon] This past summer was rough.
I made enough to keep me going
but nowhere near what I was aiming for.
That's why this winter, I need at least 200 ounces.
I don't know how many years I got left doing this.
And if I don't have a big haul this winter,
that might be all she wrote.
[grunts] All right.
Let me go out here and see
what we're doing with this comm shack.
Well, we got the truck moving some equipment,
get out on the ice, and maybe get some gold.
That'll be good.
[Vernon] Ain't that what you all came up here for?
It is.
This winter, I don't have my usual team up here,
so I've recruited two of the top divers in the world,
Larry Sinclair and Scott Baker.
These guys are complete pros.
They've dredged everywhere on the planet.
This would probably be the best team
I've had up here yet.
Right now we're gonna do some modifications
on that little trailer
until we can get that damn
comm shack loaded up on it.
Not gonna be a great fit but we'll make it happen.
[upbeat music playing]
The bed of the trailer is only 12 feet,
so we gotta make it longer,
make the bed longer
'cause the comm shack is 20 feet.
I gotta go sit down.
[grunts]
[breathes heavily]
[bleep]
My heart's [bleep] up again.
[bleep] damn it.
It's beating ninety-four,
and then it pops up to a hundred and sixty-five,
and then back to ninety-four.
Here it goes again.
[producer speaking]
Yeah, I need to talk to that [bleep] heart doctor
is what I need to do.
[Vernon breathes heavily]
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] In Nome...
[Vernon breathes heavily]
[horn honks]
[Vernon] Yeah, my heart's [bleep] up again.
It popped up to a hundred and fifty-three beats
and then down to ninety, back up...
Back and forth.
I gotta talk to that [bleep] damn heart doctor,
and he's not answering the damn phone
and his nurse won't put me through to him.
So what I'll do is I'll pull a truck over there
behind you and then just kind of
maintain a presence and--
[man 1 speaking]
All right.
[man 2 speaking]
[Vernon] I think I'm in worse shape now
than I was before I had the ablation.
I'm not happy.
So I'm trying to get this guy on the damn phone
and they're not answering.
[bleep] damn hospitals are turning into death factories.
I go in there, I was in pretty good shape.
Next thing you know, I come out.
I still got the same situation
with the A-fib overspeeding.
Plus, now I have... My lung doesn't work.
-[bleep] -[phone rings]
Hello?
-[nurse] Hi. Is this Vernon? -Yes.
[nurse] I received your many voice mails today
and I didn't appreciate your language.
If you're having that many problems,
you should go to the emergency room.
Well, I appreciate that advice,
but if you don't mind,
I'd like to speak to one of the doctors
and see if I can--
[nurse] The doctors are not available.
I can leave them a message.
Just so you know, I was in a bit of distress
with my heart racing and A-fibing and...
I mean, is that... Well,
normal to do some A-fib
in the healing period after an ablation?
[nurse] It's normal within the first three months.
You're still healing.
There's some inflammation
and the heart can go a little haywire.
So going in and out of A-fib is completely normal.
Well, that's good to know.
So maybe I won't be freaking out so bad now.
Well, thank you very much.
[nurse] You're welcome.
[Vernon] Well, yippee ki-yay.
It sounds like I'm gonna live for the time being.
Now all I gotta worry about is
whether or not we're gonna get this operation
set up on some gold before I have another
disastrous season like last summer.
Thank goodness I can finally relax.
We gotta get this equipment moved out here, A-fib or not.
If we don't go ahead
and start moving the equipment out here,
it's never gonna get done.
We've gotta get this show on the road.
[narrator] Across town...
[upbeat music playing]
Emily.
[Emily] Hey.
[Jane] Really cold.
[narrator] a top-earner
is bringing in her associate.
[Emily] Welcome.
It's so cold.
Did you have all the long johns that you need?
This is all cold weather here.
Good, good, good, good.
I see... It's nice fur boots, you know?
That's from your gold from last season.
Well, yeah, it is.
[narrator] A mainstay in Nome for years...
[makes sound]
[narrator] Emily Riedel's been consistently
banking gold on the Bering Sea.
We're over 20.
Fifty-eight. Woo!
-[narrator] Now... -I'm pregnant.
What?
[narrator] after extending her family
to soon include the next generation...
Woo!
[narrator] she's brought in her close associate,
Jane Kilcher...
We're getting the gold.
[narrator] to take over the reins for winter.
[Jane] I'm like a good luck charm.
Really wasn't any gold until I showed up.
-Well, I have gold fever. -Sorry to bring you up
to like subzero temperatures.
I'm really not used to anything like under zero.
Oh, really? Yeah, it's pretty consistently
under zero this time of year.
You didn't tell me that over the phone.
Yeah, I know. I figured I would just like
get you here before I told you how hard it was.
I'm pregnant.
Very, very pregnant.
Over eight months.
Out on the ice is no place for me right now.
So I'm assembling a team
to mine gold for me in my absence.
Jane's gonna be my contact and oversee the operation.
Yeah.
[Emily] I'm gonna have Jeff Orzechowski.
He's a great diver.
We'll be on it. Like dock on it.
[Emily] And Eddie Farler, tender.
They're gonna be out on the ice this year
with Jane, and it's gonna be great.
I'm also introducing kind of a wild card.
-[man] You okay, buddy? -[vomits]
[Emily] My dad's gonna come up.
I think it's good to have family out on the ice.
It's gonna work out great, I hope.
[Jane] Like so what do you want me to be doing?
[Emily] You're like, essentially, like the manager
and like my spokesperson on the ice.
You know, you'll check on them every day
and you'll kind of keep like
the team cohesive and happy and just...
-That I can do. -[Emily] keep everybody focused.
But, no, it'll be good.
I think you'll make the team dynamic work.
I think if it was just Eddie, Steve, and Jeff,
and I was trying to like be very pregnant
and manage it from afar, I think it would be a disaster.
So having you here, that helps a lot.
Okay.
You'll enjoy about 30% of it
and the rest of it, you'll be like,
"What... Why did Emily bring me up here?"
[laughter]
[narrator] While Emily and Jane get rolling,
on the path out of town...
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke is rolling out
some heavy hitters.
[Shawn speaking]
Like I said, the plan is to go big, real big.
First, I'm gonna to take our 20-ton grader out on the ice,
plow us a nice path so we can get back
and forth to the dredge a lot easier.
Then we're gonna do something I've never even tried before.
We're gonna take a excavator out on the ice
and dig our dive holes.
That's two really heavy pieces of equipment
to be putting out on the ice.
Hopefully, that ice is strong enough to handle it.
[tense music playing]
[Shawn speaking]
[Shawn] [whistles]
[Shawn speaking]
[tense music playing]
What's up, Joe?
[chuckling]
[Joe speaking]
-What do you think? -[Joe speaking]
Nice ride out, driving a truck?
[Joe speaking]
[bleep] yeah.
I wasn't kidding when I said we're gonna bring out
the heavy hitters.
I also got Joe Fullwood working with me
to make sure I stay on top.
I want the best diver out there.
Maybe second best.
I haven't tried it out yet
but you see the teeth out the bucket?
I kind of wanna try that bucket out,
see if it'll dig through the ice.
[bleep]
I'll hop in there and see if I can dig a hole down
-to the bottom. -[bleep] yeah.
[Shawn] See what it does.
Cutting dive holes is exhausting.
You gotta chainsaw it and you gotta lug
that thing around.
Then you gotta figure out how to get
the chunks of ice out of the hole.
It's a pain in the ass.
Well, hopefully those days are behind us.
Here we go.
[tense music playing]
Oh, that ice is hard.
Oh, yeah.
[ice cracking]
There's water coming in.
Hell, yeah.
[chuckles]
[dramatic music playing]
Yes.
Ice hole done.
[Joe] I did not think that was gonna work.
[laughs]
No more augering holes, Joe.
That worked perfect.
No more augering.
No more chainsaw.
No more fighting and beating ourselves up.
We're moving, man.
We're gonna get a lot of gold this year.
This is perfect. I'm happy.
Really excited.
[Joe] Certainly the easiest ice hole I've ever seen.
That's amazing.
[Shawn] [laughs]
[mellow music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
Back up.
Sit.
Sit pretty.
Bounce.
Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.
Woo-hoo! Good boy.
He lives to perform.
Wow.
[narrator] "Made Man" Zeke Tenhoff
is the king of innovation.
[Zeke] The first time running two sluices at the same time.
So we're gonna have double the gold today.
[narrator] He's always breaking new ground
in the gold mining game.
Right there.
Copper hole melting device.
[narrator] And this winter,
he's at it again.
[Zeke] Last winter sucked because
I went out on the ice kind of assuming
that it would be an easy winter
and it was just too hard.
I think it was just too many storms.
It's impossible to make money under those conditions.
At the end of last winter,
I realized I couldn't approach ice mining
in the same way I'd been approaching it.
Well, let's keep it all out of the weather.
Like that's the approach this winter
is to be able to have a self-contained operation
that doesn't get shut down every time
the wind starts blowing.
Last year's season, the weather was so fierce.
We were unable to really have very much success
because we were stuck out in the weather all the time.
So this season, I'm putting all the key components,
the dive hole and sluice box, the whole team,
all of our gear just under one big roof
to keep us out of the weather.
This is a pretty ambitious operation.
There's a lot of gear,
and if it doesn't work out,
it'll pretty much bankrupt me.
We pulled all our gear to the east
barge ramp here by the harbor.
[Zeke speaking]
Everything is gonna be inside.
We're gonna have a big wood-burning stove.
All our gear, all our tools.
A big enough room for like five guys to hang out in
and be warm at all times.
It's gonna be sick.
[Nate speaking]
[Zeke] To haul this big tent around,
I'm gonna need a lot more power
than I've had in the past.
[truck engine turns over]
[Zeke] More power and more gear
means a bigger operation.
So I'm gonna need a bigger team
to make this work out too.
The coziest setup I've ever mined in.
It's really nice.
It's real high-tech stuff here.
It's called tape.
Straighten out a few things
and get her on the way out there.
[rock music playing]
It's all systems go.
To keep myself afloat and out of bankruptcy,
I'm gonna need to get at least 25 ounces out of it.
We've still got our deal
with Shawn to mine on Tomcod,
so we know that there's good ground.
And with this team
we've got and this whole new setup,
I think it's a real recipe for success.
She's just about ready to pull out to Tomcod.
I found a bunch of places that I like on Tomcod,
a lot of places I didn't like.
But I did find this big pile of red gravel
kind of over to the west.
If the ice is nice and smooth there
and we can just [bleep]
hammer it for the next six weeks,
we're gonna to be doing good.
Oh, man, I'm stoked on the big move today.
It's a great day for us. The weather is great.
Yeah, the team is just badass-ing here.
[Zeke] Good to go.
Go team, go.
[truck engine turns over]
[dramatic music playing]
[Zeke] Guys, why don't we get on the road?
-[Nate] All right. I'll-- -[Zeke] I'll see you guys out there.
-Break. -[Nate] All right.
[Zeke] Thanks, guys.
This is a pretty big operation.
It's like...
Takes a lot of juggling.
We got a lot of gear.
I hope we can dig a hole today
and then potentially be diving.
Kind of a lot needs to happen.
But everybody is really like pulling their weight,
you know, and...
I think it's a good team.
My goal totals for the last couple of years
have been small but kind of reflected in
the size of my operation.
I've kept my operations low to the ground
without a lot of moving parts.
[Sam speaking]
[Zeke] I can't spend another winter
grinding out in the cold
just to come up with a couple of ounces.
It's just totally not worth it.
That's why I'm taking all of these chances.
It's definitely time for me
to step things up and go bigger
or else find something else to do.
[Nate] We just got a long, slow trip to Tomcod.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Ten miles west...
[Kris] Okay. Right there is good.
[narrator] Reaper Nation's wasting no time,
springing into action.
Really, I wanna get two people in the water today.
Myself and Andy.
Prospect the hole. Make sure it's worth
bringing the crawler in.
I don't have any time to waste.
Okay. Start it up.
[machine whirs]
[Kris] So the mission for today,
find ground that's good for the crawler.
Some ground would be okay for a diver
to jump down there and poke around on.
But for my crawler, it might be a nightmare.
So what I'm looking for right now
is flat ground loaded with gold
with light overburden.
If there's a couple feet of overburden,
it won't work for the crawler.
I gotta make a special dive hole
all the time for my brother, Andy,
AKA fat boy,
you know, 'cause he just can't fit in
a normal hole like everybody else.
Chip that for a little bit.
[bleep]
-Did he just-- -Yeah, he did.
Came off my wrist.
[Kris] No, it didn't. It wasn't on your wrist.
Let's see the video.
[bleep]
I can't believe we lost the chipper.
First [bleep] hole too, man.
-There you go. Get off. -Good job, Kris.
Hell, yeah. Look at that.
[Kris] Okay. Let's get this thing underneath the water.
So normally I use my chipper, but...
Right.
some jackass dropped my chipper on the bottom.
Try to bob it up and down.
At the last second, push it up
underneath the ice that way,
okay?
[tense music playing]
Okay. Here we go.
We got it. Okay.
Push it in.
-I think it did-- -[Kris] There you go.
Give me a second.
Hold that thought.
First dive of the season.
I'm gonna get down there and kill it.
[man] How is that? Is that good?
[screams]
[Andy] My brother's going down first.
He's already tested out the hot water.
He already burned his nuts.
-We're good. -I'm telling you, man,
that's... I wanna have children in the future.
That's too [bleep] hot.
You already got one. You're good.
-You ready, Kris? -Yeah, I'm ready. [bleep]
[Andy] Good?
[tense music playing]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris] First dive of the season, baby.
[Andy] I'm glad he's going down first.
[Andy speaking]
[Kris] It's great.
How's the ground look down there, Jay?
[Kris] We're on a beautiful copper field.
Everything looks good.
Lots of big rocks.
[Andy] That's good. Untouched or [bleep] what?
[Kris] Untouched.
[Andy] That's what I like to hear.
Okay. Idle up.
Let's see what we got.
Idle up.
[machine whirring]
How's the ground look, Jay?
[Kris] I don't know yet.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy] That's good, Jay.
Is it worth it?
[Kris] No, it is not.
It's mostly fine coal.
I don't see any big chunky pieces.
I don't know if this is gonna be
-good ground for my crawler. -[bleep]
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
Move wherever you want, Jay.
Keep going.
[Kris] Okay.
He's only worked one area so far.
You have to do a complete
[bleep] 360 on this entire hole.
I've been in lots of spots like this too
where the whole hole was garbage except for one corner.
And then I made [bleep] 30, 40 ounces on one corner.
Prospecting, you gotta keep moving around.
It's the name of the game, you know?
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] With the summer on ice,
the fleet is jumping headfirst into winter mining.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] And on the outskirts of Nome...
[man] You know what, if we hide the sluice box
back here, it would balance.
[Emily] We're not gonna have the easiest time
pulling this [bleep] to [indistinct]
all you could do is launch and go and see what happens.
[narrator] Before she can deliver her baby...
Full speed ahead.
[narrator] Emily Riedel needs to deliver
her mining operation to Claim 14.
[Emily] Woo!
There's gonna be some rough patches.
I'm up here to see the operation off,
and hopefully it's going to be running
and producing gold by the time
I'm off to have my baby.
The reality of the situation is there might not be
enough time to pull that off.
Right now, the challenge is
getting all this equipment
over these pressure ridges
and finding a place to start mining.
[Scott speaking]
[Emily] Who is ready to rumble?
[producer speaking]
[Emily speaking]
[man speaking]
[Emily] It's not gonna drill itself.
This is your future.
This is 50 ounces of gold right here,
according to the GPS, where we ended last summer.
I think we're gonna find some good healthy cobble here.
Good news, we were able to actually
get the equipment out to 14 despite the terrain.
-Okay. -[man] This is great.
I'm excited.
[man] Here we go. Here we go.
[machine whirring]
[Emily] The next challenge is to find a good spot.
We're gonna try to pick up where the pay
streak left off this last summer.
We got the gear out here.
We know our first spot.
And I feel pretty good about the fact
that I'm leaving in a couple of days
and it's kind of up to these guys.
-[man speaking] -Yeah.
Good team, good equipment.
So between now and getting a diver in the water,
there's a lot of work to do.
The ice, it looks really, really good.
I mean, it's about three and a half, four feet.
This should make life pretty easy.
This is our last known dive coordinates on the Eroica.
We were on good gold.
So we're expecting that
the good G will continue.
I've got a camera here
and we're gonna lower it down.
If we see cobble, this is where the dive hole is going.
-All right, Chubby. -[man chuckles]
All right.
[man] Down periscope.
-[Emily speaking] -[man] Here we go.
[Emily speaking]
[man] Scope it out.
-[Emily speaking] -[man] Totally.
[Emily] Pull.
All right. Play it back.
Ooh, there we go.
-Oh. -[man] Look at that.
[Jane speaking]
-[man speaking] -[man] Yeah.
[man speaking]
[laughs]
[Emily] We landed right where I was hoping.
Same spot as summer and it's packed with gold.
I'm leaving Jane the keys to the kingdom
and the kingdom is in pretty good shape,
so pressure's on to keep it that way.
You ready to take on the world?
-[Scott] Yeah. -[Jane] Yes.
[Scott] I feel pretty good about it.
You guys know what's up.
I mean, I think you guys are all pretty thirsty
for some gold.
[Scott] [bleep] yeah.
[Emily] Obviously, I can't afford to have another
ice season where I don't cross it.
This year, I think we're actually like
set up to be [bleep]
-pretty successful here. -[man] Yeah.
[Emily] Nothing is standing in our way.
With a new family on the way,
we're building our legacy here.
Last summer, we put a lot of gold in the bank
and it has to continue.
That's why I'm aiming this ice mining season
for 75 ounces.
I really hope I've assembled a team that can pull that off.
[Jane] Look, I made this for the shack.
[man] Oh, are we putting it above the door?
Not only the most successful ice operation
but also the most stylish.
My baby is gonna be born into a successful
ice mining operation.
-[Emily laughs] -[man] Come on, Scotty.
[Emily] Scotty.
Start here.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] As Emily and the gang set up camp,
three miles west...
[man] We ain't gonna make any money
standing around up here.
Let's go.
[chuckles]
Hell, yeah.
[narrator] It's go time for the godfather of Nome.
[man] Have you been running, son?
Look at those legs, man. Jeez.
I think he's in better shape than last year.
Your suit is looking a little looser on you than last year.
[laughs]
I thought it was a little tighter.
I love working on the mechanical dredges,
the Myrtle Irene
to Christine Rose.
But there is no substitute for putting on a dive suit,
getting in the hole,
and sucking it up yourself.
When you get down on the bottom
and you start seeing gold going up that nozzle,
there's no other feeling like it.
I still get goose bumps.
[Steve] How are you feeling?
[Shawn speaking]
[Steve] [bleep] Yeah. Get some gold.
A little leery about veering away from the Tomcod.
Hopefully, this is not a misstep.
There's only one way to find out.
[Shawn speaking]
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawn] It feels good to be back under the ice.
How deep you're thinking?
[Shawn] I'd say a good 30 plus.
Quite a bit deeper than we went
diving before [indistinct]
Most people are a little bit, uh,
a little bit timid to come out here in this deep water.
[Shawn] Yeah.
Everything feels good, the hot water feels good,
good visibility.
On the bottom.
All right.
Heading for that little hole in here.
All right, I'm on the nozzle.
Go ahead, throttle her up.
[Steve] 10-4. Here she comes.
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawn] We're looking for the yellow brick road,
the little path of gold that's loaded.
You're getting worried about your slippers yet, Dorothy?
[Shawn laughs]
I just wanna go home.
[Steve] We ain't in Kansas anymore.
So, do you reckon we picked a good place to start?
[Shawn] Nothing too amazing just yet.
It's a pretty sandy bottom
but we're surrounding by cobbles.
I wanna make it out to this cobble edge right here
where the cobble and the sand meet.
It will be loaded.
[Shawn speaking]
[grunts]
[Shawn] I can't reach any further.
If I just could get out further,
I'd be really happy.
We definitely need to move.
10-4.
[Shawn] I'm coming up.
[dramatic music playing]
It's a good news, bad news situation.
The ground we landed on
isn't where the good stuff is at.
On the plus side, I can see where we wanna be.
It's just out of our reach.
But with the excavator,
we can cut a new dive hole in no time.
That's the benefit of going bigger this winter,
it keeps us moving faster.
Right here is where we're going.
I wanna dig us a dive hole.
[engine revving]
[intense music playing]
[man] Ooh yeah.
[man speaking]
[Shawn] What do you think?
[Steve] Yeah, man, that's beautiful.
Best ice hole I've ever seen.
[Shawn chuckles]
Having an excavator out here worked like a charm.
We already got a new hole cut,
set up on the spot
and ready to mine.
We're gonna kill it this winter.
[man] Ready to get some gold?
[Shawn speaking]
[Shawn] I'm just starting heading down.
Didn't have to spend half a day drilling a ice hole
or shoveling slush.
Almost on the bottom.
Ah, there we go.
Let's see what's over here now.
[Steve] Let me know when you want me to throttle up.
[Shawn] Oh, buttercup.
There's a nice little ridge of rock right here.
It looks pretty damn interesting.
All the signs are here for something great,
all the signs.
The material is looking amazing.
Come on, baby, where are you at?
Oh, there it is.
There we go.
There you are,
sneaky little bastard.
I'm running into some color now.
Boo-yah.
Sounds like he's getting in it.
[Shawn] Yeah,
it's great.
Oh, it's so nice to see some gold again.
Whoop-whoop.
I think we're gonna make some money this winter.
[dramatic music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
[Chris] Right now, we're on the right track.
Oh, right on.
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] After four hours,
Nome's youngest gold gangster
is robbing the Bering Sea blind.
[Chris speaking]
See any pickers yet, Chris?
[Chris speaking]
Right on, right on.
[Chris speaking]
[man speaking]
[Chris] Okay. Copy that.
I wanna start heading up,
but the day is not over yet.
There's still a bunch of ground left.
[man] 10-4.
[machine whirring]
I wanted to start on a hot pay streak this year
and that's exactly what we're doing.
[Wilson] I'm getting ready to go dive.
I'm gonna get some good gold today.
The thing is, I need to keep it going
the whole time, multiple dives.
And not just me, I'm gonna get Wilson down there.
I want this first day
to put us on board with authority.
All right, Wilson, go tear it up, man.
Get money.
[dramatic music playing]
This is my favorite part
that we're going down,
that means I know it's gonna start making money.
Things are looking pretty good from here.
Best day ever.
How is your air, Wilson?
[Wilson speaking]
What about your hot water?
[Wilson speaking]
Copy that.
This is Wilson's first winter season diving with me.
He's young and he's already an established diver
and that's why I asked him to come join my team.
I feel like just a little bit of guidance from me
is gonna make him way better gold miner.
Wilson, what are you seeing down there so far?
[Wilson speaking]
[Chris] Sweet.
That's it. Just suck it up. I think we're on it.
Just keep open up the ground.
It's all gonna add up,
if we keep open up the bigger ground.
[Wilson speaking]
[Chris] We're making money as we speak.
[Wilson speaking]
[Chris] So far, so good.
[laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Eight miles west.
[man] Run the ice!
Weird being inside.
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff is open for business.
[Zeke] This is by far the coziest mining
I've ever experienced in my entire life.
This setup is so dope.
It's like you're in your living room
except you're out on the ice on the Bering Sea.
It's nice and warm.
[man] Man, it's so toasty.
Good toasty.
The main thing is that we have the dive hole
and the sluice box inside the tent.
[man] Oh, it's about right.
So, if we're diving and the storm is raging,
the winds are whipping outside,
we're still nice and warm.
Our heater is so big that it doubles as a stovetop.
-[man speaking] -[man laughs]
[Zeke] We have a comfortable sofa to hang out on
and some mood lighting
to give the whole place a nice ambiance,
but the true test below when we're diving.
I'm gonna suit up.
[rock music playing]
Holy [bleep]
[man speaking]
[Zeke speaking]
[grunting]
[Zeke speaking]
The boot system is, uh, good to go.
This whole system is way bigger and way more complex.
That also means there are more variables
that can all become issues.
Given the length of hose that we're running
and the depth that we're diving,
I'm starting to worry that the pump that I have
isn't gonna give us enough suction.
The only way to find out is to get down there and try.
[Zeke speaking]
[crew] How's your level, Zeke? Can you hear me okay?
[Zeke] Yeah, I can hear you great.
Oh, boy. Are you stoked or what, man?
I'm stoked.
[Zeke] Uh, I'll be stoked when...
Real nice and clear down here.
It's lovely.
How's the light under there?
[Zeke] It's kinda gotten dark and scary, honestly.
You have the dark and scaries?
[Zeke] Yeah [indistinct] is terrifying.
But, I mean, the hole is right there,
so that's comforting.
Oh [bleep] king crab.
We're gonna get a crab pot.
It is subsistence license.
[Zeke] Just a little guy.
Hey, buddy.
You get out of here.
[Zeke speaking]
I think we're in the right spot,
like this is, like, right where I left off
last summer, right where this cobble line meets the sand.
Let's go ahead and, uh, crank up that pump
and see what kind of suction I have.
[Sam] Here we go.
Look at that flow. Look at it.
How's that, uh, how's that suction, Zeke?
[Zeke speaking]
Crank it up.
[Zeke] Is that all you got?
It's... It's just not... It's not there.
It's not gonna do it.
[Sam] Yeah, my [indistinct] says he can maybe
get it a little bit more.
[Zeke] And this is what I needed to find out.
I was like... Suspected this might be the case.
We need to run two pumps.
[Sam] Yeah. Well, it looks like
we're gonna have to plumb in
a new, uh, pump.
[Zeke] Yeah, we can't move ground with this.
Like, I really thought that pump
was gonna rip for us.
And I think that's gonna be a project for tomorrow, guys.
All right. That sounds good, man.
[Zeke] All right, guys.
I think I'm gonna smash back up to the surface.
We got a lot of work to do.
Yeah, we do.
It's a learning curve.
[Zeke] I think we're in a good spot.
The material looks good.
I was able to suck up a little bit of it but like,
when you don't have enough suction,
you don't have enough suction.
It wasn't even close.
[Zeke speaking]
I'm so stoked, though. This is great.
This is so nice.
This is a huge project
that I think we came up really well.
We just need more water pressure.
Look, I know this operation is a thousand times
better than what we had last winter
and I also know we're on good ground.
I don't like having to burn days
messing with the system and not mining,
but we discovered this problem pretty quick.
We just need to get a second pump rig into this system,
and then we'll have enough suction
to really hit our stride.
[Zeke speaking]
We'll add in another pump
and get some rip roaring suction tomorrow.
[Zeke] We'll be mining soon.
[intense music playing]
[Vernon] Oh, we got the Comchek trailered up.
We'll take it on out to the, uh, staging area,
drop it off and go ahead and pull it out on the ice.
[narrator] After a heart-stopping scare earlier,
the Dawn of Nome is back at it,
pushing to get his operation
on the ice and ready to start mining.
Okay, guys, what I suggest is
I'll get behind you in my truck.
We'll hook up to the ass end of the rig.
And then, I'll start pulling it off
the trailer and we'll get the pontoon on the ice.
-Sounds like a good plan. -Sounds like a good plan.
That will work. That will work.
-[Vernon] I hope so. -[crew] Let's get to it.
We just need to get the operation onto the ice
and find a hole, pronto.
-Are you ready? -[crew] Okay!
This season, I ain't got time to mess around
troubled ticker or not.
[crew] Nice drive.
Looks real good.
I love it when a good plan comes together.
[dramatic music playing]
It's always good to see
the equipment's moving
in the right direction.
Vernon, we made it.
Absolutely no issues.
We are on the spot.
All right. All right.
Yeah, good job. Come on back in.
That'll be a good day's work.
[crew] Sounds good. We're on our way.
[Vernon] I'm thinking this is not gonna be bad at all.
Might be the best year yet.
[narrator] On the outskirts of town...
I'm glad we're getting up when we are.
It's definitely down to the wire.
[narrator] It's time for Emily Riedel to fly.
I've been having like so many contractions lately.
I think, it's, uh, I think it's safer to be out of here.
I can go in to labor any time.
I think I've stayed as long as I can.
I've pushed it as far as possible.
But when you're a couple of weeks away from delivery,
ice mining is just not an option anymore.
I love Nome, but the medical resources just aren't here
to have a baby, so I've got to go have my baby in Homer.
It's good that we're getting out and we are.
And I feel confident that we're leaving, uh,
we're leaving the ice operation in good hands.
Yeah.
I'm hoping Jane calls me each week
with a report of lots of ounces.
Considering the quality of the ground that we...
Uh, we're putting Jeff on,
I don't think that's, uh, crazy.
Is that... Is that Jane?
[Jane speaking]
[Jane] You guys excited?
[Alex speaks]
[Jane] Outta here.
[Emily] Hell, yeah.
The next time I see you, you're gonna be a mom
-and a dad. -I know.
-Yeah. -Wild, huh?
[Jane] Yeah.
I feel like this is a good time to fly out.
It's like the post snow machine contractions
mean anything.
It's time to go, but I'm...
I feel like I'm leaving the team in really good hands.
This is a hard decision to make,
turning the operation over to somebody
but I don't really have a choice.
There's no two ways about it.
I'm putting a lot on Jane's shoulders.
This is what's paying for the baby right here,
this ice operation.
[Jane] What could go wrong?
Yeah, what could go wrong?
-[Jane laughs] -[indistinct]
Jane is a good friend, and I love her to death,
but she has zero experience ice mining.
But she's my eyes and ears in the operation,
and I just hope those guys can get the job done
and that Jane can take care of business.
-For you. -Wow.
[chuckles]
-Oh [indistinct] -It's all on you now.
Oh.
Jane, you're the only thing that stands
in the doorway between success and failure.
How does that make you feel?
No pressure. God.
All right. Thanks so much for being here.
I can't believe you're gonna be a mom.
-See you soon. -I'm gonna miss you.
Miss you, too.
I'm not coming home unless I have gold.
[Emily] That's the spirit I'm looking for.
[Jane] Hey, Emily is gone. It's just me.
[Jane speaking]
[chuckles]
[intense music playing]
[narrator] Back out on the ice...
Is you air and everything good, your hot water?
[Kris] Everything's fine.
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[narrator] Gambling on a new, expensive piece of equipment,
wise guy Kris Kelly is still on the hunt
for the right ground to make it pay off.
Hey, think this'll to be good enough ground for the crawler?
[Kris] My crawler is not gonna work here.
I didn't like the gold, too deep of overburden.
I don't like it. I say we move.
Well, let me go down and check the other side of the hole
and if it's garbage, we'll leave.
Yeah.
[Kris speaking]
All right, Jay.
Well, first day of diving, it could be going better.
For the crawler to work,
I need to be on a good paved street,
flat ground and very little overburden.
That's not happening so far.
If we brought the crawler down here, it would be screwed.
This season, gold is not going to be enough.
I need to give my crawler the best chance
to operate correctly.
So I need to get into a better spot,
less overburden, hopefully, more gold.
Andy's gonna jump down,
prospect the rest of the spot,
see what there is.
If we don't find good ground for the crawler
to work by the time he gets here,
the whole plan is gonna fall apart.
You like that?
You're good.
Talk to me. How's it going?
[Andy speaking]
I told you, deep overburden.
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
Are you on gold?
[Andy] I'm on gold, dude.
How much gold do you see?
[Andy speaking]
[bleep]
[Andy speaking]
Do you think we should move to another hole?
[Andy speaking]
I know. I know.
[Andy speaking]
The whole day has been a [bleep] waste.
[Andy speaking]
This is definitely not the way I wanna start the season.
I put everything I have left into this plan
with the crawler, and if it all falls apart,
Reaper Nation will not survive.
We'll just keep pushing, try to find perfect ground.
But every day we come up empty
will cost a lot of time and money.
Hey, I think you should just finish up to pull
the system and we start the prospect for a new hole.
[Andy] Okay.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
Pull the umbilical!
[Andy speaking]
We're done prospecting for the day.
We've come to the conclusion, this hole is done.
[Andy speaking]
We need a new hole.
This is a piece of [bleep]
we got to keep going hard.
No time to [bleep] around.
We're gonna move our operation.
We're moving.
[intense music playing]
[Wilson speaking]
Yeah, you never know. There might be big nugget
laying under those big rocks, dude.
[Wilson speaking]
[Chris] Yeah, yeah, that's perfect.
[narrator] After a successful dive
from the young gun, his protege
continues to line their pockets.
[Chris] All right, Wilson, nice.
It's been four hours,
so come up whenever you're ready.
[Wilson] All right.
[Chris] All right. I'm gonna idle down.
[Wilson speaking]
[engine whirring]
We got two dives.
No hiccups on the gold.
We absolutely crushed it.
Now, it's all gonna come down to what's on the scale.
If it's a big number, it'll just prove
that no one's gonna touch us this winter.
[Chris speaking]
[Wilson speaking]
[laughter]
[Chris] That's what we're looking for.
Wilson did four hours of diving and there's quite
a bit of gold in this [indistinct] corner.
Yeah. Nice.
[crew] Good job, man.
[Chris] That's money, baby.
[narrator] Across the ice...
[upbeat music playing]
[Joe] So, how's it going out there, Shawn?
[Shawn] The gold is so good down here.
Hell, yeah.
[narrator] Four hours in, and Mr. Gold
is still sucking up the gold.
[Shawn speaking]
All right, Shawn, great start to the season
and we'll see you here at the top.
[Shawn] We got some nice chunky gold.
We got the excavator up there to dig our ice hole.
We're down here on the bottom where we need to be.
This is gonna be a good season.
I got a good feeling.
I'm outta here.
[upbeat music playing]
[Shawn speaking]
[Joe] Awesome.
[Shawn speaking]
First dive of the season and we're already killing it.
This feels amazing.
Seeing all this gold, it reminds me of why I got
into this business in the first place.
The box is looking good.
-[Shawn speaking] -[Joe] Yeah.
[Joe speaking]
[Shawn speaks]
[Shawn] Joe is gonna go down for a few hours,
clean up, whatever I didn't get to.
We're gonna have a monster haul.
Perfect way to start the winter.
[Joe speaking]
-[crew] Yeah. -[Joe speaking]
[crew] Awesome.
[Shawn] I've had a long day.
It's cold out here. I'm ready to go home.
I'm gonna go stuff my face with a burrito or something.
I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more gold this winter.
[narrator] Three miles east.
[upbeat music playing]
[Jane] Emily has been blowing me up today.
This is, like, text number 30.
[narrator] With Emily outward bound,
the associate is in the captain's chair,
but on a short leash.
[Jane speaking]
Emily is... You know, she wants to be here.
I'm just telling her that everything is going good,
that, you know, it's like par for the course.
Emily is off having her baby, but I still think she thinks
of her ice mining operation as her baby, too.
So she's leaving her baby behind.
Emily is constantly checking in on us.
She's always worried about what's going on.
I talk to her every single day.
[Jane speaking]
I'm already nervous because I know ice mining
is gonna be tougher than the summer,
so it just adds more to the pressure.
She wants gold.
I'm gonna give her the gold.
[chainsaw whirring]
Oh, oh my God!
[man speaking]
Okay. I'm excited.
-Woo-hoo. -Woo.
Looking good, man. Woo.
[laughter]
You ready? Woo.
[bleep] [laughter]
-[crew] Come on, Jane! -No.
-Come on. Let's go. -Never.
[crew] We're not gonna let you go into the ocean.
-There. -No, no.
-Go, Jane. -No, no.
[crew speaking]
Oh, that's not a problem.
[Jane speaking]
We're having a block party.
-Let's do it. -Woo.
[chainsaw whirring]
The way you get a block out
is why you cut it up into little slices.
We got another slice that's gonna come out
in about five minutes, plus or minus 15.
[chainsaw whirring]
[Jane] Boom.
[crew] Block party is over, Jane!
[Jane] I wasn't having any fun at all.
[laughter]
So far, things are going really well.
I'm super excited.
We may look like a ragtag
bunch of misfits,
but we're setting up camp, we're getting the hole built,
and we're having a ton of fun doing it.
Nothing wrong with that.
We rocked it today, and I'm really impressed.
Wrapping up for the day, I'm covering the hole.
[chuckles]
Whoops.
That'll work.
One, two, three, ha.
[chainsaw whirring]
[crew] That looks all right, man.
I think it looks pretty good.
We look great.
-I have a cigar. -Oh, really?
-[crew] Do you guys want a piece? -I don't do cigars.
[Jane speaking]
This is kind of awesome, being out here
and feeling like we accomplished something.
Smoking a stogie in like freezing temperatures,
I can get used to this for like a week.
-[crew] Is it doing it for you? -It's really good.
[crew] It's really good. [laughing]
It's really good.
-There goes the sun, guys. -I know.
-That's the end of it. -[Jane] Goodbye.
-[crew 1] Goodbye, sun. Goodbye! -[crew 2] See you tomorrow.
[Jane speaking]
[upbeat music playing]
[Vernon] Let's take a little break today.
Damn ice mining will get you down.
You got to have a cocktail every now
and then, see what's happening out there
in the wide, wide world of social media.
[narrator] And now, another episode
of Social Hour with Vernon.
[Vernon] "Vernon, what are the options
by going number two on the Gold Ship?"
Well... [chuckles]
it's kinda every man for himself
and I don't want to see it
and I don't want to hear about.
I mean, 1,500 gallons a minute going through
that sluice box, so whatever goes in
is gonna go out the other end pretty quick.
So, I have seen people actually out there
doing the number two on the sluice box.
And I just like, I don't wanna see it.
They're the ones that are gonna have to clean the box.
I don't think that's the problem.
I stood in your cabin with a plastic bag
underneath my ass
taking a [bleep]
I'm not gonna live like that.
Yeah, Hurricane Dave,
he was doing the number two thing in a plastic bag
which hurt his feelings for some reason.
He got all bent out of shape and flew back to Florida.
[narrator] This has been another episode of
Social Hour with Vernon.
That's enough about number two.
I mean, I don't really like to talk about things
like that when I'm having my cocktails, if you don't mind.
Not very appetizing.
-[upbeat music playing] -[crows cawing]
So we moved over and if we see
the same image that we saw on that hole,
we're moving over here.
[narrator] With his back against the wall,
Kris Kelly is fighting to keep his dream
of Reaper Nation alive.
Okay. There we go. Okay. Put it down.
I realized relying on the success
of the crawler could be a recipe for disaster.
But when it works, it's going to pay me
on a different level altogether.
So I know this is all worth the gamble,
but right now, it's do or die.
We have to find the right kind of spot
or I'm dead on arrival.
Well, what's the verdict?
[Kris] Sand and cobble.
A little bit of sand covering the cobble.
We're going here. This is... This is money.
Come on, buddy. Let's rock and roll.
What I saw on that camera, you couldn't ask for more.
Cobble not so much overburden.
There should be gold here. And if there is,
the crawler will kill it in this location.
Okay. We're ready to go.
Let's do it.
[engine whirring]
We're gonna move the whole camp
and get this all set up now, like right away.
I hate this is taking so much time,
so we need to tap in to some serious gold.
-[crew 1] It's [indistinct] -[crew 2] We got it.
[crew 1] Yeah.
Yay.
We're gonna call it a night.
Get out here tomorrow morning.
Get two dives in, hope maybe three.
And we're... We are gonna be all gold.
-[man] Roll over here. -[Kris] Way better gold.
We can just dive right in.
[Kris] Tomorrow, we're getting a lot of gold.
[dramatic music playing]
[upbeat music playing]
[Chris] I used to hate panning, dude.
It's [bleep] your patience.
It turns out panning is a peaceful,
meditating way to get rid of my anxiety.
[narrator] Chris McCully is looking
to make a statement
with his first clean out of winter.
[Chris] All right. So, this is the final product.
Let's weigh it out on the scale.
People usually weigh them out in ounces,
but I like doing them in grams
because that's just the way I do it.
We got 40...
150...
220...
250...
286 grams.
Let me translate that analysis.
So, 286 grams
divided by 31.13 ounce...
is 9.2 ounces.
That's pretty impressive.
[narrator] Nine-point-two ounces
is worth over seventeen grand and the young gun
has put the rest of the fleet on notice.
[Chris] We did really good on this round.
Now, that I got all my things dialed in.
Now, the rush is on.
It's gonna just get better from here.
I have the ability, and knowledge, and focus,
and the team in order for me to get to the top.
This is just the beginning.
If I could stay consistent with my production,
which is my goal, no one could stop us.
Yeah, baby.
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Across town...
[Joe] Cold, cold as the ice inside Shawn's soul.
[Shawn laughing]
You got to have a soul first.
[narrator] After the first trek to the east tracked,
top boss Shawn Pomrenke is ready to see
if his heavy hitter plan is chalking up a hit.
Smells like gold. Smells like money.
Nasty seashells and rotten organic matter,
and some good gold.
Yeah, it's starting to add up.
I love this new setup.
We're close to town. Joe and I are diving.
And the best thing, we have an army of equipment
to help us beat the ice, so we can move fast.
I'm hoping for a big number.
Let's see what we have.
[Joe] Put her on the scale.
Here we go.
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Fourteen and fifteen.
[Shawn] Heck, yeah.
I like it.
[narrator] 14.15 ounces
is worth nearly $27,000
and Mr. Gold's winter operation is off
to the races.
[Shawn] Well, that's a damn good start.
-Keep rolling [bleep] -Yeah.
-Looking for more. -Oh, yeah.
Mother Nature tried to throw us a curveball
with this jagged ice,
but we figured out a way to fight back.
We're on a great spot.
I can't wait.
We're gonna be able to run one moneymaking hole
after another this winter.
We need to get back out there.
[bleep] yeah.
[laughing]
That's just a little taste of what's to come.
[narrator] Chris McCully and Sean Pomrenke
both hit the scoreboard,
while the rest of the fleet waits in the wings.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold.
[Chris] There's a storm coming up.
There ain't no [bleep] today.
[Shawn] Time is money.
Every hour you're not running
is another hour you ain't making gold.
Back in business.
We're gonna make some money.
[man] I just found a crevice that was full of gold.
Well, good job.
[machine whirring]
[Joe] It's running like a sack of [bleep]
we're lighting everything on fire in there.
[Chris speaking]
It's like an animal out in the wild,
always searching for that next meal.
This is the greatest, the latest prospecting tool.
Woo-hoo. [chuckles]
[Steve speaking]
These are dumb [bleep] problems.
[intense music playing]