[narrator] This season, the miners of the Bering Sea
have fought harder...
No!
Oh, man, that was the scariest dive I've ever done.
...and gone deeper than ever before.
-[Zeke] The mother lode. -[Gabe] Got him.
Bam.
With all new weapons in their arsenal...
[Chris speaking]
...to fearlessly wage the battle for gold.
[Zeke speaking]
But now...
their common adversary, Mother Nature,
has launched a sneak attack.
Get every piece we can before winter arrives.
A sudden cold front
has brought freezing temperatures that'll ice over
the harbor and put an end to summer mining.
But with targets within striking distance,
can they risk one last shot at glory?
[Kris] Something's wrong.
Ah!
Or...
is it already too late?
[Zeke speaking]
You OK?
[Zeke] What the [bleep]? [screaming]
So what are you saying? I'm fired?
But every morning, it's getting colder and colder
and colder, and the season's done.
In summer's final hours, Shawn Pomrenke needs a miracle.
The cold front is bringing arctic temperatures,
icing over equipment,
and making the ground at the inland mine too solid
to dig through.
And it couldn't have come at a worse time for Mr. Gold.
[Shawn] I'm about 1,000 ounces shy.
of this 4,000 ounce gold in the contract,
unless, like, a miracle happens and there's 1,100 ounces
in the box this next cleanup, there's no way I'm hitting
the 4,000 ounces.
This season, I made the biggest deal of my career and took
a stab at gold mining history.
There's the potential to make a few million dollars
by tapping into the original pay streak
from the original Nome Gold Rush.
Well, hopefully we find a big area
where they just missed it all.
-You will. -We will.
I guarantee you, you will.
[Shawn] But it meant delivering 4,000 ounces to satisfy
the deal with Dave.
[Dave] Well, hopefully it works.
You just hope you don't make too big of mistakes
that you can't recover from.
Things at the mine started off hot.
Gold, baby. Gold.
[bleep] gold miner! Yeah!
[Shawn] The pay dirt pile's dwindling.
That's the last of it right there.
But then it turned out to be more of a challenge
than I originally thought.
And we don't have the new cut opened up.
It's gonna be a problem.
To boost production...
We'll get rolling.
...I gambled on $5 million worth of new equipment.
Full steam ahead!
That helped us get on some amazing gold.
156. Loving it.
Now I got $80,000 a month payments to make all winter.
But I'm in debt,
and summer's finally coming to an end.
Pretty scary.
I mean, since we got the new equipment, the numbers have
definitely come up.
The last cleanup was the best cleanup of the season.
But now it's freezing, so now it's [bleep]
maybe too little too late.
I believe in this project. We're on legendary ground.
But I need a thousand more ounces.
And if I don't deliver, Dave can end the deal,
and I'll lose everything.
[Shawn speaking]
I don't care if the ground's basically frozen.
We're gonna keep mining until we can't mine anymore.
[engine whirring]
[Shawn speaking]
We're into some high-grade material in the back corner.
It's the best ground we've seen yet.
I need the biggest cleanup of the season to show everybody
what we're capable of.
And to save my deal.
Well, I'm gonna keep pushing.
We're doing everything we can to make it happen.
While the cold front puts the squeeze on Mr. Gold,
in the harbor,
the fleet faces the cold, hard facts of winter.
Frigid temperatures have started to freeze
the harbor water.
And come nightfall,
temperatures will plummet even further.
[Zeke] Holy [bleep].
Still short of his season goal...
[Zeke] We'll see if we can break out of this ice.
I don't know.
...Zeke Tenhoff is electing to brave it.
[Zeke] When you start to get thick ice in the harbor,
that's the end of the season.
Pretty soon, this harbor is gonna be too frozen
to keep going.
I mean, there's a line there.
If it gets too icy, you're not gonna be able to pull your
dredge out because you're gonna be stuck in the ice.
The dredge is made out of aluminum.
And if you're trying to drive through ice,
you could potentially put a hole
in the hull of your boat.
Almost everyone else has already bailed.
Let's see if we can bust through this ice.
But I want to keep pushing it a little longer.
[engine whirring]
[indistinct], we're stuck.
The Synergy is like locked in a big pan of ice.
Sam's gonna ram the ice around the dredge and try
to break it up enough so that we can get the boat moving.
All right, there you go.
Sweet.
I think we probably got it now.
It's starting to kind of feel like the end today, for sure.
My goal this season was to get enough ounces
to pay off the boat.
We found great gold under a big pile of boulders.
There's a bunch of gold in there.
[Zeke] But moving those boulders started to take too much
of a toll on us physically and mentally.
[screaming]
[Joe speaking]
I don't feel comfortable.
That's a problem.
So we moved over to a sand field
where we're able to work longer hours
and move more material more consistently.
Yet again, we persist.
[Zeke] We're still all pretty beat up from moving those big boulders,
but I need Sam, myself, Jeff, and Gabe to all get
good, solid dives in today to wrap this up.
-Shall we? -Yeah, let's do it.
[machinery stuttering]
[Gabe] It doesn't want to turn over.
[Zeke] Oh, no.
This is our air compressor.
It doesn't want to start.
You're just cold.
What if we got a torch and just kind of heated it up a little?
[Zeke] It's crazy to have to deal with all this ice and to have
to blast everything with heat to get it started in the morning,
but it'll be worth it if it gets us one more day.
[machinery stuttering]
Yeah.
[loud rumbling]
-Yeah! -There we go.
Copy on here?
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] How's it look down there?
[Zeke and Gabe speaking]
-[Gabe] Is it doable? -[Zeke] Um...
[Gabe speaking]
[Gabe] You're very quiet.
[Zeke] What the [bleep]? [groans]
Are you OK?
-[Zeke, unintelligible] -Oh, my [bleep] god!
Oh, my [bleep] god!
[intense music playing]
[Zeke coughing]
[Zeke groans]
[Gabe speaking]
[Zeke speaking]
[Zeke] A line on a buoy got wrapped around my mask
and ripped it off of my face.
Ah!
I just felt a rush of water,
and I had no air left to breathe.
Yeah, it's scary when something like that happens.
You just kind of have to let, like, your muscle memory
take over and not get afraid.
Because you can't see your way back to the surface.
You don't really know how long it's gonna take.
You're not in a good spot.
I could hear, like, water going into the regulator,
and I could hear gurgling. [imitates gurgling sounds]
And then it was just like "Bleh!"
So I ran out, and it was like a while before he was up.
And you could see air free flowing up through the top.
The thing that would kill you down there
is getting tangled up and [bleep]
and then having your mask get ripped off.
That's how you drown.
Sure gets get your adrenaline going.
Now get your ass back down there, dude.
[Zeke] We've got ice in the harbor.
Our equipment's not running because it's too cold.
I got my mask ripped off my face.
And the visibility's really bad.
We've got a lot working against us.
But it's the last day.
We all need a little bit more gold.
We just got to go for it.
[Zeke] Gabe, you got me?
-Yeah, I got you. -[Zeke] OK, good.
[Gabe] You all right down there, bud?
[Zeke] OK.
[Gabe and Zeke speaking]
Gotcha.
Try to keep your [bleep] mask on this time, dude.
[Zeke] OK.
Back at the dock...
[Vernon] All right, here we go.
Harbor's freezing up.
Well, we're just going to have to work around it.
We're going. [bleep] it.
With his season goal within reach...
-[Vernon] How's my stern? -[crew] You're OK.
...the harbor ice isn't stopping Vernon Adkinson.
[Vernon] [bleep] damn it.
[Vernon] I've been trying to save up to fund all this.
This is my retirement.
With a nitrox system, we've been able to go deeper,
but it's not been that easy.
[diver speaking]
[crew member speaking]
I got you. Don't let go.
I was hanging on for my dear life.
[Vernon] Nothing went right with the first half of the season.
Vernon.
[Vernon] [bleep] damn it.
And Richie struggled to find his sea legs.
[Rich speaking]
Pull him up.
He's all [bleep] up. He's not gonna get any better.
But the team finally started to gel.
[Rich speaking]
All right, that's perfect.
And we pulled marathon after marathon.
[Rich] Ha-ha!
I'd say that's a pretty good day's work.
The gold started flowing,
and Richie turned into a rock star.
[Rich speaking]
You suck! In a good kind of way.
This is absolutely the best.
A really smart person would probably go ahead and pull
the boat right now. I must not be that damn smart.
The guys want to take it to the last gasp.
And so do I.
I'm gonna need a healthy combination of royalties
and a big haul from these guys to make my target.
We lucked out on a really good spot the other day.
So now we're going back out, try to duck right back down
on top of it, get one last lick.
At this point, every little bit helps.
I wanna be the last team off the water.
I'm gonna get Richie on the gold, and then we're gonna
push these weary souls for as long as they will go.
You're doing great.
Deep into the night until their bodies or the equipment
breaks down.
[Vernon] OK, let it go, let it go. Drop that anchor.
[metallic rattling]
[crew member] OK, we're good.
We will grind it out until the bitter end.
I'm not gonna say we'll die trying, but we're gonna give
it everything we've got.
So, other than that, I have nothing else to say.
[Rich] The season is running out, as we speak.
Ready to get some gold.
Weather like this could mean thousands of dollars in
our pocket if we can just keep the equipment running
and keep the bodies functioning.
Get after it. Make our time count.
[crew member] Go get it!
All right, diver down.
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] OK, you're on the clock.
[Scott] No pressure, but the only thing standing between us
and gold in our pockets right now is you.
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] OK.
So, Rich, how is your visibility?
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] OK, you've got five feet of visibility.
How does the material look?
[Rich speaking]
Are you seeing any gold?
Are you seeing gold?
Yes or no?
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] What did you say?
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] All right. Well, just do better.
[Rich] Roger that.
[Vernon] Those little pickers look good, man.
[Rich speaking]
All right.
Sound like we've got a really good spot here.
[Rich] Roger that.
Couldn't be sweeter than that.
It's damn good to get on some good gold.
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] You're doing great. Stay on it.
[Rich] Roger that.
With summer freezing out,
the fleet races for a final shot at golden glory.
[Joe] Cast off and go get one more day's gold.
Get every piece we can before winter arrives.
Ready to make a couple bucks before we're unable to,
before we're frozen in.
In summer's waning hours, hometown hero, Joe Fullwood,
still needs to pay the piper.
[Joe] Deck's cold, everything's frozen.
Let's hope everything fires up this morning.
I want to be able to go even further offshore,
take the operation to a new level.
But it's been a roller coaster ride this season.
-Let's get to sea, boys. -Go check out Tomcod.
[Joe] Time to get moving.
I started on Tomcod because it's ground that I knew well.
We're ready to get some gold.
But McCully was there.
He jumped on my spot and made it an unbearable place to work.
So I left Tomcod.
Just pulling up to 56 right now.
Good to be out here on Vernon's ground.
Real good gold.
Made a deal with Vernon to work 56.
It's been paying off well.
Working Vernon's claim,
I've got to pay him a 15% royalty,
so I've got to get 15% on top of what I need.
Hit this really good, fresh, soft pan right between
us and the cut we've been hitting to the south.
I'm heading into deeper water, but the later it gets
in the season, the worse the viz gets.
You just can't see what you're working,
and that's risky.
As temperatures fall, plankton and algae thrive,
turning the water a murky green.
And the deeper a diver works,
the harder it is for sunlight to reach.
If we find a little more gold, we're gonna put a [bleep] sail
on this boat.
Turn this into a sail boat.
A sail that won't do much, but it'll look pretty [bleep] cool.
I need to figure out how to put a big metal finger on it
for when I see Chris out here.
[imitates explosion sounds]
We're gonna try to get two dives in today,
one from me, one from Wilson.
We can't stay down more than three hours, but I think
it's gonna get us the gold we need.
All right, here goes.
Oh, I'm hungry for some gold.
That's good.
See if she fires up today.
Oh, [bleep] yeah, she did.
She's running great.
All right, looks like we got prime.
Dredge appears to be running well.
[Wilson speaking]
[Joe] It's honestly not the easiest getting in and out of the water
when it gets cold out like this.
Deck's cold.
You know, we're walking on deck barefoot.
All righty, one more dive.
Yeah, ready to get some gold.
Oh yeah, let's do it.
[Wilson] All right, comms check.
[Joe] Yeah, got you loud and clear.
Notice about a 10 degree difference in water.
It means winter's coming.
[Wilson] Just hope there's some visibility down there.
How's the viz looking so far?
[Joe] Um, viz is...
[Wilson] Got some good [bleep], huh?
[Joe] Yeah, real nice.
[Joe speaking]
Yeah, it looks workable down here.
Hell yeah.
[Joe] Might be in business today.
[whistles]
[Joe] Sucking it up quick as we can.
Got to make every bit of this day count.
-[Wilson] Hell yeah. -[Joe] Yeah, this is it.
Outside the harbor...
[Chris] This is it. I'm out here.
This is my last push.
...rival Chris McCully is throwing his own Hail Mary.
[Chris] It's cold this morning. Just a little window.
I'm trying to finish strong, and this is what I must do.
I wanted to get my crawler up this summer
and start expanding
so I won't have to rely on divers ever again.
I started on the hot ground on Tomcod.
41.3 ounces. Beat that.
You need to get the [bleep] out of my place.
And everybody wanted to be on my spot.
And it got really crazy out there.
Oh-ho!
But I held my ground and stayed on the gold.
And I found the biggest nugget ever offshore Nome.
But the crawler never made it up here, so I'm not where
I wanted to be at the end of the season.
Now I'm rolling the dice.
Gold's right there. Gold's in front of me.
Just got to chase it now. That's it.
I've been chasing the gold lately.
I'm hoping to strike another jackpot.
So this is leading me further out.
Ultimately, there's a lot more risk further out.
One, you're diving deep.
And two, you're far from the harbor.
But this is my best shot.
I think this is the spot, right here.
Cross my finger, we can land straight on the gold.
[Chris speaking]
[Robert speaking]
Hey, Chris, how's it looking?
[Chris speaking]
[Kris] The end is here, baby. This is it for the Mistress.
We're gonna get out there and make sure we get as much
gold as we can to salvage everything.
In the summer's final hours, Reaper Nation joins the fight
with their lone remaining vessel.
This will be it, baby. We did everything we could.
[Kris] I'll go out there and I'll get gold for sure.
It's important that we get as much as we can,
one last cleanup,
and whatever we get is what we get.
[Kevin] Let's just try to salvage what we can.
[Kris] We will.
My goal this season was to become a millionaire,
but now I might lose my ass.
Good job, boys! OK, let's go!
I wanted the Mistress
and the crawler both working all season.
The Mistress started out making gold.
This is the most gold I've ever seen in this sluice box.
We [bleep] killed it, gentlemen!
It took a while for the crawler to get on the water.
Jackpot!
But when we finally did, we got it down 70 feet,
and the material looked amazing.
Those test pans are hot! We're going mining, baby!
But the Mistress had major repairs that knocked it
off the water.
And the crawler had a bunch of trouble, too.
[crew member speaking]
[Kris] What's the diagnosis? Pack it up?
Yeah.
[Kris] We had to shut it down.
1.15 of an ounce.
And there wasn't much in the sluice box to show for all
the hard work we did.
-[Kevin] Yes. -Bring the barge in afterwards,
do a cleanup.
-[Kevin] Yes to everything. -[Kris] Yes to everything.
I love yes to everything.
I'm just trying to break even, and I'm not there yet.
I can't be in debt.
We're just gonna run the Mistress nonstop.
Kevin's taking the night, I'm taking the day.
Skeleton crew.
Just me and the new operator, James.
OK, I'm ready to rock and roll.
Last push of the year. Everybody's gone.
Andy flew home,
and everybody else abandoned us.
We're desperate. We have to stay out here.
Screw everybody. We're going out one more time.
Well, [bleep] man. I'm glad you're here.
Without you, James, we would not have
a 24-hour crew right now.
We just don't have enough people.
No problem, bro.
I love helping you guys out when I can.
[Kris] We're gonna do well together.
Yeah, I feel like it.
Light that box up like a Christmas tree.
So I'd like to go as close as we can to the right side
of that green cabin.
And I know that gold is in there.
I know that.
-[Kris] That's right, big buckets. -Big buckets.
[Kris] There's supposed to be big swells later,
so I'm staying close to shore.
If we can tap into an old hot spot, we should be able
to ride it for the rest of the day.
Yeah, let me just go start up everything.
You got to hustle, make this happen as fast as you can,
'cause time is money.
I've gotten a lot of gold around this spot.
I know there's a lot of gold here.
Right now, we only need to see 100 colors in the test pan.
Let's just get to work.
Something's wrong.
Hey, uh...
I need you to help me out real quick.
Something's going on with the shaker.
The shaker is vital to the wash plant.
Shaking everything that's collected in the bucket,
filtering out the larger material,
and depositing what's left into the sluice box.
[Kris] So what's going on...
Rah!
The shaker's not starting up, so we can't mine.
It just needs a little bit of help.
So I'm gonna have to hand fire it to get it going.
Ready? Go!
Good Lord, please help me.
You're OK.
Oh my life is a charmed one.
OK, let's see what kind of material we're on.
Right through that [bleep].
[Kris] Jackpot.
I found it! Right off the bat!
Oh, I'm lucky!
[Kris] That's exactly what I'm looking for.
[Kris speaking]
[Kris] First test pan of the day.
Some chunky pieces.
A bunch of fine gold. We're well over 100 colors.
All season, I've been counting on other people
to run this dredge.
I already fixed the shaker and got us on gold by myself.
I know what I'm doing.
Whatever we got to do to stay on that, let's do that.
[James replies indistinctly]
That's the gold, baby.
We're killing it.
I made something really amazing happen.
Man, I'm getting good at this job.
Coming up....
[Vernon] It's our last shot.
[Rich] Dear Heavenly Father, please bless Scott.
Watch over him and keep him safe as he goes down.
With the harbor freezing, who will be the last dredge
on the water?
[Kris] Finish strong!
[Zeke groans]
As the cold front continues to assault Nome,
Zeke Tenhoff is tormented by currents.
Hey, buddy. How is it down there?
[Zeke speaking]
He's struggling.
[Zeke groaning]
It just turned up quite a bit in the last 10, 15 minutes.
OK. Yikes.
It's gonna get worse.
Hey, it's getting -- it's turned up a notch,
and the weather forecast says
it's gonna be getting progressively worse.
[Zeke speaking]
[Gabe] Yeah, I think it might be time.
[Zeke speaking]
OK, let's do it.
[Zeke] We overcame a lot of problems, but eventually,
it's just Mother Nature that ended our season.
We did get a lot of quality hours on the box.
[Gabe] Come on.
Speak to me, Papi.
This is great.
That looks good.
[Zeke] [bleep] yeah.
This material looked really good,
so we'll see if it was worth it.
I got four hours in, so...
[laughing]
Across the water...
[groans]
[Joe] Well...
Despite the bad viz, Joe Fullwood is still trying
to get down to biz.
Just taking what you can where you are?
[Joe] Yes, yes.
-Right where I'm at right now. -Good.
-You can't see [bleep], huh? -[Joe] No.
[Joe] This uh...
[Joe speaking]
Sounds like real bad viz.
Too bad, 'cause we're on hot gold.
[Joe speaking]
[producer] He's calling it?
Yeah, he's calling it. He just can't see.
It's like trying to mine blind, so we gotta go back.
[Joe groans]
This is the best ground of the season.
You just can't see what you're doing down there.
It was hard work.
I spent every last bit of energy I had
getting what we got.
See what kind of gold we put in here today.
No. [indistinct]
Oh, yeah. Yeah, not bad.
Yeah, I see some gold in there.
Not bad at all for such [bleep] conditions.
[Wilson] Not too shabby.
[Joe] Uh-huh. I'd say we did pretty good.
We did as much as we could do today.
Rolled the dice, managed to get a good amount of time in.
Yeah, it's rich [bleep] gold.
It's too bad we can't get a couple more days on it.
More gold would be better.
Get this [bleep] out of the water.
It's a coin flip at this point, whether we're gonna hit
our goal or not.
But it could have been worse.
Luckily, for a few good dives out here on 56,
it amounted to something.
We'll get what we get, and we won't throw a fit.
Got ice forming in the pit now.
Starting to have to run a little bit of frozen material.
It's not good.
Shawn Pomrenke fights to keep his historic project
from getting iced out.
[Shawn] We're gonna have to keep water running over
the sluice box. Keep that thawed out.
But it's getting tough.
I'm using every trick in the book to keep going.
I got water running through the wash plant,
the water cannon spraying the ground, and Cody out here
digging with me.
It's just getting too damn cold.
And the ground's getting more frozen by the hour.
My ace in the hole is this spot.
What the hell is that?
Yeah, there's something going on right there.
So this is the vertical shaft, and then they have horizontal,
and they went that way and that way.
What's in the middle?
Our cut.
When I uncovered it, I knew it was special.
If there's any spot I can achieve this, it's right here.
[Cody speaking]
Shawn, you got a copy?
Yeah, go ahead.
I'm down to my last load of pay here.
This is it.
Yeah, I tried to scrape up as much as I could.
Copy that.
This is the end.
We're past the point where we should have stopped.
But Mother Nature, she's not gonna let us mine anymore.
Well, we're done.
Gonna do the last cleanup of the season,
see what it added up to be.
While the freeze claims a victim at the inland mine,
back out on the water...
[Robert] Hey, Chris, how's it looking?
[Chris speaking]
Far from shore, Chris McCully gambles on his remote hotspot.
[Robert] Whoo! Damn, it's ripping.
But deteriorating conditions
could make the deepwater gamble a losing bet.
[Robert] The wind's starting to pick up out of the north.
We'll see how the weather holds up.
It's the name of the game, [bleep] weather.
[Chris speaking]
Ow, [bleep].
Yeah, Chris, the wind's picked up.
We're already getting spray off the white caps.
[Chris speaking]
[groaning]
[Robert speaking]
[Chris speaking]
[Robert] Yep.
[Chris speaking]
All right, I got you.
Idling down.
Whew!
[Chris] I held out as long as I could.
Great gold, but maybe not enough.
Usually, I'm way past my goal by the end of the season.
So it feels really weird being behind where I want to be.
Mother Nature wins. It really did picked up.
So yeah, pretty much it's time to go home.
Coming up...
[Vernon] Who knows what we're gonna end up with?
Who will savor the sweet taste of success?
[Vernon] Four, five, six.
-[Kris] Oh my god. -[crew member] We got 10.
-10, 12. -14, 15.
[Shawn] That's a lot of gold.
-Oh my god! -[Chris] Let's do it.
On the outskirts of town...
[Zeke] Damn, look at all that gold.
Hell yeah.
Something about gold is, it's like, so it's pure.
We love it.
Team Tenhoff awaits the result of their mad dash
for the 150-ounce finish line.
[Zeke] It's a long season, it's six months.
We would have liked to have more hours in October,
but that's just always how it is.
We're at my family's place to do this last cleanup.
We got this little pile and this little pile, so...
Yep.
It just makes me feel good. That's what this is all about.
Since I've had a kid,
being successful in this mining business
has taken on a new meaning.
I want to be able to pay off this dredge and then save
for the future.
All right, here we go.
Two...three...
Five, six, seven, eight, nine...
Ten...
11, 12, 13...
13 ounces.
13.1 ounces rings in at nearly $33,000,
bringing team Tenhoff's final number to 152 ounces,
cashing in at a stellar 380 grand.
And with his final weigh out, Zeke Tenhoff finally owns
the Synergy free and clear.
[Zeke] It's a tidy little pile of gold here.
[Gabe] I'm glad I got some more money.
Yeah, you have to be stoked.
Yes, that's what we got.
[Zeke] This was a really tough season for us,
and our bodies and our brains are just done.
But it was worth it because moving forward,
it's gonna be all profit.
So, I'm so happy about that.
It's like been kind of a roller coaster this summer,
but all's well that ends well.
Back out on the water...
[Vernon] Hey, Rich.
What are you seeing down there?
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] It doesn't look like much over burden.
[Rich speaking]
With temperatures dropping rapidly,
only one suction dredge remains
on the Bering Sea.
[Rich speaking]
[Vernon] Richie's out of gas.
He's pushed as far as he can go.
[Rich] I'm gonna call it.
-[Vernon] Come on up. -[Rich] Copy.
All right.
We're doing this last gasp.
[groaning]
We'll just try to...
get another big old handful of gold.
Richie gave it his all this season.
[Rich] Some more in the bag.
-[Vernon] Nice work. -Thank you.
[Vernon] Hell of a dive.
There were times when I did not think
he was gonna make it.
He had a lot of problems to work through.
Good diving.
Good, powerful dive.
I'm tired.
[Vernon] But I got to say, in the final analysis, he did his duty.
He put gold in the box. He learned a hell of a lot.
And he's turned into a pretty decent shipmate.
This is Scott's last dive of the season.
Last time, he called it short.
[screaming]
[Scott speaking]
[bleep] [bleep]
He's got to be strong and show some toughness.
You either got it or you don't. Everybody is worn out.
They're tired of this.
They want to go to the house, and you just got to dig
really deep to push on through to the end.
Because after everything we've been through,
this could be the difference between hitting our goal
and coming up short.
[Scott speaking]
[Rich] Yeah?
[Scott speaking]
[Rich] Yeah.
Dear Heavenly Father, please bless Scott and watch
over him and keep him safe as he goes down to explore
the bottom of this ocean you gave us.
I pray that you give him guidance and courage
and strength to deal with what he needs to deal with smoothly,
freely, and safely down there.
I ask that you watch over all of us as we make an attempt
to help our families.
We ask these things in Jesus' name.
-Amen. -[Scott] Amen.
[Scott speaking]
[Rich] Diver down.
[Scott speaking]
[Scott] This is good looking material.
[Rich] OK, so that cut kind of stretches south
and then back west.
Just take all of it. You'll see it.
[Scott] Copy that.
OK, go ahead and throttle up.
Throttling up.
[Vernon] See anything Scott?
[Scott speaking]
[Rich] Yeah!
Across the water...
[Kris] How's everything going with you?
Good, that's a -- [bleep]. You like that?
[Kris] Yeah, awesome job. Good.
Everything's going good on my end.
We're killing it.
In the final stretch, Kris Kelly is running
a tight ship.
[Kris] Well, what can I say?
We're getting a lot of gold and nothing's breaking down.
The end is near. Everything's going great.
You know, when mining's boring, and, you know, you're just
relaxing, that's when everything's going the best.
That's when you know you're making gold.
It's good, because I need something right now
to go good for me.
It's nice to see the Northern Lights.
It's beautiful.
It is very beautiful.
I put in eight hours, and it went smooth.
I don't know how many clowns we've had out here in the past,
but I did fine, and James killed it in the excavator.
It's not the boat, the boat's not the reason
why we failed.
It's the people that were working the boat.
The night crew's finally here.
OK, thank you very much.
Everything's good.
You're on good gold, everything's good.
Just run all night and then do a cleanup tomorrow.
[crew member speaking]
[Kris] Everything's coming together.
The night crew's gonna go a few more hours, then I'll take all
the gold in the box and hope we hit 150 ounces
for the season.
I need to end this summer without any bills
hanging over my head.
It's really important we finish strong, and I know you guys are
gonna do a good job. Thank you!
Finish strong!
-[Vernon] Hey, Scott. -[Scott] Yeah?
[Vernon] What is it looking like?
[Scott speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah, roger.
With the clock ticking, Scott hangs tough
for team Adkinson in the last gasp of summer mining.
[Scott speaking]
[Vernon] All right, Scott.
-Good stuff. -[Scott] Yeah.
[Vernon] Scott's showing me something.
I was wondering if he had anything left in the tank.
But he's hanging in there.
[machinery sputtering]
[Scott] Oh.
Um...
[bleep]
[Rich speaking]
[Scott speaking]
[singing] Got me working all night long.
[Rich speaking]
[Scott] OK.
Damn it, man.
[machinery abruptly stops]
[Vernon] The motor just died.
Just stopped. The engine died.
[Scott] I can hear it's turned off.
-[Vernon] Come on up. -[Scott] OK.
[Vernon speaking]
The um...
[Rich speaking]
Kind of sounds like the end of our season right there.
-[Scott groans] -Good freaking job, man.
[Vernon] These guys outlasted the equipment,
so they can leave with their heads held high.
[Rich] Honestly, I'm just so tired.
So that thrust bearing is fried? That's what you're saying?
[Vernon speaking]
You always want to get that last little lick.
But when the equipment breaks down, and we have
no more time left, what's in the box?
That's it.
That's what's in the box.
We can call this heartbreaker.
You know, this is like that 900-pound marlin
that you're reeling in,
and right before you get ready to boat it,
it throws the hook and swims merrily away.
[sighs]
As the old saying goes, it is what it is.
[Kris] This is the worst season we've ever had in our lives.
Puncturing the boat, blowing up the boat.
You know, that's not the boat's fault.
You know, that boat gets gold.
It just needs someone to [bleep].
It should have been me. I blame myself.
I do.
After his tour de force on the Mistress, Captain Kris
will find out if he lands in the black or in the red.
I promise I will be there more next season.
I promise I'll jump back and forth both boats.
Well, I mean, it looks like a good amount.
It's not a disappointing amount for the run that we had.
It's a good amount of gold.
[Kris] This was a disappointing season, but there is redemption
knowing that the Mistress works, when I'm on it.
And the crawler works. At least it moves material.
I just need to be on top of both boats every day,
and I can do that next summer.
As long as I get enough gold to make it to summer.
Let's just weigh it out and see what we get, yeah?
[Kris] Yeah, we'll put it on there.
It's not like it's gonna [bleep] matter.
I'm not gonna say no to whatever there is.
[Kevin] OK.
All right, Kris, let's see what we got here.
-There's one. -[Kris] Yeah, there's one.
-Took forever to get there. -[Kevin] Two....
-[Kevin]...three, four... -[Kris] Four.
-[Kevin]...five, six, seven. -Oh, my god.
-[Kevin] We got 10. -[Kris] That sucks.
-We got 12. -Come on, you [bleep].
12.85.
We definitely did a little bit better,
but we're not jumping up and down.
12.8 ounces is worth 32 grand,
bringing Reaper Nation's season haul to 153 ounces.
Cashing in at a respectable $384,000.
And the captain breaks even with a couple ounces to spare.
You know, this was a tough year.
I worked myself to death to try to get to this point.
And all we can do is just keep making it better.
Well, I didn't lose money.
I made enough to pay off all my bills
and be broke, but that's better than being in debt.
We had a lot of bad luck this season, but I learned a ton,
and I know we're gonna crush it next summer.
So right now, all we can do is just clean up our mess,
put everything away properly, and get ready for next year.
Across town...
[Chris] Water's freezing, eh? It's slushing already.
I know, it's ice.
Yeah, we're just, like,
right in that freezing point, eh?
This is the last cleanup of the year, and I went out there
and tried to get as much dive hours
in this little window we got.
We got a decent amount of gold on the last few dives.
It's starting to fill up, so that's pretty good.
But we'll see if it's enough.
You guys ready?
There's two, four...
6, 8, 10, 12.
Got our pickers here.
14.7 ounces is worth nearly $37,000.
But Chris McCully, the winter gold count champ,
falls well short of his summer goal.
I have a small dive window on this front, so for me to get
this much, it's a very, very humbling moment.
I'm used to crushing it.
Not getting the crawler up here really killed me.
All I can do from now is focus on my plans for next year.
I'm going to get the crawler up here, put her on the Norpac,
and after that, sky's the limit.
But I still got a ton of gold, so I'm really proud of that.
Anytime I see three digit numbers, I'm happy.
Yeah, buddy. Good job, guys.
Good job.
There's more ground to be uncovered out there.
We got a lot of buckets today, a whole truckload.
Time to tally things up and see what we got.
With the gold count title on the line, Nome's hometown hero
preps for his final clean out of summer.
Slump this in the pan here and go barbecue some gold.
Getting close to our final number.
We might have had a short window,
but we made the best of it.
Moving to 56 was the right call.
And this material proves it.
I just hope it's enough to pay off Vernon
and still hit 300 ounces.
All righty, moment of truth.
Get this final weight on the scale, see what we got.
One, four...
...8, 14, 15.
-Oh, [bleep] Wilson. -Ooh.
[Joe] Oh, yeah.
[bleep] yeah, dude.
22.6.
I'd say we [bleep] tore it up.
-Yeah, that's [bleep] beautiful. -That's good.
22.6 ounces cashes out at 56 grand,
bringing Joe's season total, sans Vernon's royalties,
to 317 ounces
worth nearly $800,000.
And Joe hits his target on summer's last day.
-Man, good job. -This is good.
[Joe] [bleep] yeah, dude. Happy.
It's been a great season.
I'm looking forward to getting out there again next summer.
-[Wilson] All right. -[Joe] Very good.
[whistles]
With this money, we're gonna go deeper and further than
I've ever been before.
Man, this 56 has been amazing this summer.
Time to settle up with Vernon.
He might even be a little more excited about it than us.
Oh, yeah. Pretty amazing.
[upbeat music playing]
[Vernon] It's the end of the season,
and now I've got to go over here and collect
some royalties from Larry.
[seal barking]
-Hey Larry. -[Larry] Hey.
-[Vernon] All right. -How you doing?
-How's it going out there? -Oh, it's going better.
Since I'm on a roll, I thought I'd come over and see if
you got anything for me.
I do.
Yeah, I've got a ten and a half here for you.
Oh.
[cash register dings]
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I'll just put it in this pocket and keep it warm.
Sounds good. We'll keep this rolling.
-Well, it was a pleasure. -Absolutely.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Vernon] All right. Catch you later.
[seal barking]
Yeah, this is gonna be a good day.
-[Rich] Looking juicy, Vern. -[Vernon] Is it?
-[Rich] Yes, I think so. -[Vernon] All right.
This is our last cleanup for the season.
So this is whatever we get, that's it.
We had a malfunction,
but I think we'll be looking pretty good.
Pan it good, guys. Don't miss a speck.
We're in the short throws here.
I don't know if we're gonna be able to pull this nut
off or not. The royalties are a big help.
I already got 10 ounces from Larry, and now I need to see
what Joey's gonna bring me.
[Joe] Hello, Vernon.
Hey, Joe.
-Come on in. -How you doing?
All right.
-Good to see you. -Yeah, same here.
-Pretty good season? -Yeah, it's been well.
Yeah, Tomcod was a little bit rough.
A lot of difficulties with our neighbors out there.
And heading out there to 56, and having such wonderful
neighbors has been just a pleasure.
That's where I get my kicks on 56.
That's right, us too this season.
Got a little pile of gold here for you.
Damn.
-Yeah, that... -[gold rattling]
Oh, yes.
Damn. Holy moly.
-That's the number? -Yeah, 23.2.
That's two pounds, 2.28 pounds of gold.
That is nice.
That's about the best present I think I've ever received
in my life.
It's my pleasure to give it to you, Vernon.
-I appreciate the heck out of you. -All right.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Vernon] Joey's the best in town, hands down.
Been knowing him a long time.
I was expecting a good little lick from him, but I wasn't
expecting this much.
Good, Joe. Take care.
Thanks so much, Vernon. We'll see you guys later.
[Vernon] Yep.
On top of that, he's honest.
I mean, he could have brought me half this much, and I would
have been jumping up and down.
It might end up being a very golden day.
Who knows what we're gonna end up with here?
Yeah, it might be a real golden day.
[Rich] I'm telling you, Vern,
I think it's gonna be all right.
All right. Let's see what we got.
One...
...two...
four, five, six, seven, eight...
7, 13, 14...
14.575.
Nice.
14.5 ounces banks over 36 grand,
bringing the surly skipper's final haul to 207.9 ounces,
worth a hefty $519,000.
That's not bad for an 8-inch suction dredge.
The first half of the season was rough,
but these guys toughed it out.
And now that we've got the nitrox system dialed in,
the sky is the limit.
Right now, I'm damn near ecstatic.
I'm about as happy as I ever allow myself to be.
You can't pull me away from 56.
That is nice.
It's been a golden day.
Great job. Bag it and tag it.
[Shawn] Here we go.
Last cleanup of the season.
The site of Nome's original gold rush is hibernating
under the ice for the winter.
Oh, [bleep]. This box is loaded.
But Shawn Pomrenke is looking to stay hot one last time.
That's quite a bit.
-Whoo! -[bleep] yeah!
-It's all the way right there. -[Shawn] Oh, yeah!
[laughing]
-[Dave] What? -Look [bleep] down there.
-[Dave] About time. -[Shawn] Great job, boy!
Whoo!
We got into this corner,
and it's some high-grade material.
It's the best I've probably seen all season.
-[bleep] team. -It's a lot of gold.
[Shawn] I've got us on the gold
everybody's been after for decades.
[laughing]
This is just a taste of what's to come
if we can keep this deal going.
Yee-haw!
But I don't know -- will there be a future here for me or not?
We have a smasher cleanup to do.
Our best cleanup yet was 156. We're gonna go check it out.
-How's it looking? -[Dave] It's looking good.
I think you might break a couple hundred this time.
I hope so.
After this cleanup, it'll be the most gold I've ever mined
in a single season.
But if Dave doesn't extend the deal, I'll be out of work,
and my crew, and I'll still be on the hook
for all this equipment.
I'll lose everything.
[bleep] that's a lot of gold.
[Dave speaking]
Oh, my god.
Let's weigh it. Let's do it.
[Shawn] 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 80.
-[Dave] 80, 90, 100. -[Shawn] There's 100.
[Dave] 20.
-Ooh, 140, 50, 60. -[Shawn] 150.
Come on, there. We just beat our best cleanup.
-180. -[Dave] 190.
[Shawn] 200 and...
209, hey. Good job.
[Cody] It's a record.
209 ounces banks 522 grand, bringing Shawn's season total
to 3,067 ounces, worth a staggering
$7.7 million. A personal record for Mr. Gold.
-[Dave] Good job. -Yeah.
-[Dave] Needed that. -Yeah.
But will it be enough in the eyes of Dave Young?
We had about 31. 3,800 short.
We got every ounce we could get this year.
So what are you saying?
-I'm fired? -[Dave] Huh?
Am I fired?
I talked to the guys in Colorado and, uh...
you know, they were impressed with you
getting that new equipment.
That really impressed them that you were willing to...
-Risk it all? -[Dave] Yep.
-That's what I did. -That's what it takes sometimes.
-Yep, it's nice to have -- -So what are you looking for?
I mean, I got five years to pay for the equipment,
so it'd be nice to have a five-year lease.
Five years, huh?
Well, we mapped out what's left there.
We figure it's gonna take you 10 years.
Yeah, it probably would.
You willing to sign a 10-year lease?
I'd do a 10-year lease.
We'll give it to you, OK? Don't [bleep] it up, OK?
[laughter]
Yeah, 10 years is good.
It's job security for my guys.
I've been doing this a lot of years.
I've been rich and broke a million times over.
But this time, it's different.
A 10-year deal on this ground is life changing,
not only for me, but for my crew.
We're gonna write a new chapter
in the Nome gold mining history book.
I didn't expect a 10-year contract.
Yeah, you got it.
[Shawn] I'm excited. It's been a long season.
Hard work does pay off.
Shawn makes history with his biggest total ever,
and Joe Fullwood emerges as the offshore
summer gold count champ.
[Vernon] All that funky white stuff falling out of the sky,
that's what we call termination dust.
[Joe] I'm excited to hang this thing up.
Got the gold we need to get through winter,
get everything packed up for the season.
[Kris] You know it's the end. Harbor's freezing.
Everything's going to [bleep].
It's been a tough struggle all year.
But what do you do? You just keep going.
I'm not ready to give up.
[Zeke] We're done. We are done.
Got to get it parked. We got to get it up on blocks.
Then we'll be good to go.
[Chris] All in all, it's been a great season.
And I think I'm already set up for success in the future.
We're building an empire here.
This year definitely was a learning curve.
But I'm good. I got enough to pay the bills.
Next year, we should be able to just hit the ground running
and just kick some ass.
You've seen what we did this year, just wait till you see
what we do next year.
I'm excited.