[woman screaming]
[narrator] breakdowns.
They can strike at any moment,
be they physical or mental.
And that's certainly true with ice mining.
[shawn] 20 below, things don't like to run. [bleep]
[narrator] as the fleet battles the worst known winter in 100 years...
[gabe] okay, this won't do. [bleep]
[zeke] somebody should have noticed
that the [bleep] generators were in a puddle.
[narrator] the question is...
[vernon] he's aggravating the [bleep] out of me.
We're done.
[shawn] go tell joe.
[kris] we got a real problem.
All right, guys, it's not going to work.
[narrator] will any team be able to keep it together?
[gabe] no! Tell him to come up.
[kris talking]
[narrator] or will it all break apart?
[frustrated yelling]
[mikel speaking]
-[vernon] [bleep] -[shawn speaking]
[wind howling]
[vernon] we've got to take advantage of every minute.
Some of the guys are hungry.
They want gold.
I want gold.
The gold's down there.
Can't get it if we're up here.
[narrator] as the second major blizzard of the season
finally passes...
[gary] a lot of snow.
A lot of snow,
but you got to shovel and move on.
[narrator] vernon adkison
is digging out and doubling down on divers.
What we'll do is
we'll get mikel suited up.
That will be his first dive with us.
Let's see how he does.
Fifty-six is absolutely loaded,
so I'm shooting for 200 ounces this season.
That'd be a personal record.
But these damn blizzards just keep knocking us off the ice.
That's why I'm going to expand my team
and get more hours on the box to when we can.
So today we're breaking in a new diver, mikel.
He's supposedly a real pro.
Hopefully, he'll hit the ground running.
[mikel] I'm a career diver. I've been diving since '85.
North slope, prudhoe bay, blank islands. Worked the cook inlet.
Some of the most furious current in the world.
Very challenging work in alaska.
[mikel speaking]
[gary] all right, he's at the bottom.
He's on the bottom.
How's your hot water?
[mikel] uh...
[mikel speaking]
you're not getting any hot water?
[mikel speaking]
all right. Okay, gary, he's coming up.
[gary speaking]
[vernon speaking]
[gary speaking]
[mikel speaking]
what's going on? You warming up?
There's not enough flow on the hot water.
Hot water's the right temperature,
but if it can't get it to your peripheral
it's just passing the hose from your feet to your hands.
We're making some adjustments to the system
so that we can get more flow down to him
so that it goes to all the body parts.
[gary speaking]
[mikel and gary speaking]
[vernon] mikel was complaining
that he wasn't getting enough hot water.
That's the same flow that the other divers were getting.
But divers can be finicky.
We dialed that up, so the issue should be behind us
and we should be back to getting gold.
[mikel speaking]
I think I heard him say "payday."
[mikel speaking]
[bleep] damn it.
So what about the hot water?
[mikel speaking]
[bleep] been down there one minute
and he's complaining about the hot water again.
Mikel said there was a problem.
Well, if there was, it's fixed.
I mean, he knows this is not the bahamas.
He's an ice diver. Of course it's cold.
We're maxed out on hot water.
If this is not enough for him, well, sorry, charlie.
We're wasting time here.
And if I'm going to make that 200 ounces,
I've got to have producers.
He's got to warm his hands, warm his feet.
That's time away from dredging.
If he spends a third of his time doing that,
that's a third less gold we'll get.
[narrator] ten miles west...
[shawn] hopefully this is the hole.
We'll keep looking for it, we'll find it,
we'll get on it eventually.
[narrator] to make the payments on his rapidly expanding empire,
shawn pomrenke is on the trail of a golden jackpot.
Let's get set up and run it.
If I want to make all my payments this season,
I still need about 100 ounces,
so I'm looking for a big payout.
And I think I finally found one.
I've drilled holes all over this ancient riverbed
and from the material I've been seeing,
I'm confident there's a giant honey hole here
just waiting to be tapped.
So I'm going to double up my efforts
and I'm going to find it.
I'm gonna get the hot water heater fired up
and we'll get everything running
and get you suited up and get down there.
Today, I'm going to dive
along with my second in command, joe fullwood.
The guy's aces. Best diver in nome.
Well, second best.
And the sluice box should reflect that.
Between joe and I that gold doesn't stand a chance.
Just getting the hot water dialed in for joe.
126 right now.
Enough to keep him nice and toasty.
We got water running in the sluice box.
Oh, come on.
Really?
[generator starts running]
20 below out and nothing wants to work.
Cold weather can really test the equipment,
but it's my responsibility as tender to keep joe alive.
The tender is the diver's first line of defense.
In ice mining, there's just as many things that can go wrong topside
as there is on the bottom.
[generator stops running]
[bleep] thing doesn't want to stay running.
[generator starts running]
seems to be running.
I don't know about fine but it's running.
[joe]
[shawn] there's something close by.
We'll get on to it.
[joe speaking]
let's go, joe! Whoo!
How are things going down there, joe?
[joe speaking]
[shawn] sooner or later, we should see that big pile of yellow.
[joe] hell yeah.
[generator stops running]
[bleep]
[shawn speaking]
go tell him! Go tell joe!
[generator starts running]
[speaking]
[joe] what's going on with it?
It's just not wanting to stay alive.
[joe speaking]
[shawn] air compressor keeps dying.
20 below, things don't like to run.
Well, I just laid a towel over it,
block off part of the intake,
and put the hot air around the carb and everything.
Seems to be doing okay now.
Joe is no rookie. He knows how to gauge risk.
Air compressor's not working the best in these temperatures,
but if he wants to keep looking for gold,
I'll let him.
I'm going to keep my eye on that air compressor.
But if I feel it's not safe, I'm going to pull the plug.
[joe] I just feel grateful every second it's running.
Yeah, I got her running, but just barely.
[joe speaking]
suck her up, buttercup.
[joe speaking]
[mikel speaking]
that's nice.
That's what you look for if you're an inlet miner or a prospector.
You look for veins of quartz,
a lot of times there's gold embedded in it.
[narrator] after a morning spent fighting the cold,
captain vernon adkison's hoping his new diver mikel
is on the verge of getting hot.
[mikel speaking]
[vernon] so you're on the gold?
[mikel speaking]
[vernon] so you're cold now?
[mikel] yeah.
All right, do you want us to pull up the umbilical?
[mikel] yeah, just pull it up and then I'll climb it.
All right.
Pull up the umbilical, he's coming up.
Yeah, he's getting cold.
He got cold in the beginning,
and he never did get warm.
Maybe got 20 minutes of actual dredging.
[gary speaking]
[both speaking]
-[gary] kill it? -[mikel] yeah.
[gary speaking]
[mikel speaking]
not good, not good.
Thing about it is,
this guy ain't going to work out.
-All right. -[gary] I feel...
No, no. I, you know, I'm done.
He's aggravatin' the [bleep] out of me.
[mikel speaking]
[vernon] yeah, I don't think he's up for the job.
I don't want you to overstress yourself.
If you're done, then leave it.
I don't want to have to drag you up.
[mikel speaking]
[vernon] we're done.
This has been a colossal waste of time.
I mean, I like mikel,
but if he wants to dive,
it's probably better he find another rig to dredge on,
because right now we've got to produce.
There are a million things that can go wrong out here
and today it was the human element that failed us.
[mikel speaking]
[vernon] we got to find another diver.
[narrator] while vernon's forced to pack it in,
11 miles west...
Joe's air supply...
Right now she's dying,
but he's on good gold so he doesn't want to come up
so I guess I got to babysit this piece of [bleep].
[narrator] mr. Gold's holding out for a double dive day,
but with a fading air compressor,
his plan may be on its last breath.
Plan was to double up the hours on the box today,
looking for that sweet spot.
But with the air compressor on the fritz,
I'm not even sure we're going to get one full dive in,
let alone two.
[joe] yeah, man, I'm seeing good gold.
He's seeing good gold
and he's still breathing, so...
Hell, we're going to keep on mining.
No gold, no paycheck, so we have to make it.
And we just keep limping it along.
[joe speaking]
[generator revving]
all right, air compressor keeps [bleep] up.
[generator stops running]
[joe speaking]
[bleep]
[joe speaking]
[generator starts running]
[generator stops running]
[bleep]
[joe speaking]
[shawn] come up, come up! The compressor's quit again.
Thing doesn't wanna stay running.
[bleep] thing.
[joe] yeah. Yeah.
No, there's not much diving to be done with air like that.
No.
Today didn't go according to plan at all.
The whole tag team dive thing didn't even happen.
I didn't even get a chance to dive.
I'm pretty bummed the air compressor crapped out,
but I'm glad that joe got some decent hours on some gold.
Sometimes you just got to look at the silver lining.
One good dive from joe
is like having 20 good dives with the kellys.
[joe speaking]
[shawn] yeah, definitely see some color.
[joe speaking]
[shawn speaking]
[narrator] half the fleet's already felt the sting of breakdowns
as dives have been cut short.
But as clouds roll in,
the others are just getting started.
[kris] team meeting everybody!
Plan today is get gold.
Okay, let's get the high pressure lines locked on.
Let's get the hose in the water,
let's get the jet log in the water.
I need that hot water system rocking and rolling.
[narrator] after a long and stress-filled start to the season...
Y'all, let's just do this today.
[narrator] ...Captain kris kelly is finally ready to go under the ice.
We're going to make all of this come together,
and we're going to make some [bleep] gold on top of it.
We're like that close.
After our crap summer,
I went big to try to save everything.
I got a top of the line operation.
Eight inch nozzle, new sluice box, new engines.
I've got brand-new everything.
There's no way I can't succeed.
But I racked up so much debt doing it,
I need at least 25 ounces
to make it through this season.
Go ahead, connect it.
[kris] come on [bleep]. Daddy loves you.
The problem is this season's been a disaster.
It took days
just to get on the ice and get everything set up.
So we're already behind.
But the good news is we are ready.
So I'm pumped just to get down there and get some gold.
I know this dive is going to be amazing.
Everything's fine.
We've got our hose connected, high-pressure line connected,
the hot water is running, I'm gonna auger my pump-down holes.
And we're going to put kris down.
[drill whirring]
[kris speaking]
26 feet, dude.
We broke off too much of our [bleep] hose in the move.
So right now, we could have a little itty bitty problem.
We had a brand new nice long hose to go diving with this year.
Emphasis on "had."
my dad broke off a huge chunk of our suction hose
when we were hauling our gear on the ice.
[kris speaking]
[andy speaking]
it's not gonna... Our dive's not gonna work.
Like four feet of [bleep] working underneath the water?
So all the good gold is deep,
and we're gonna have no hose
at the bottom of the ocean to get gold with.
I'm basically stuck with whatever I land on.
So right now I have to pray we land on gold.
Fingers crossed.
First dive of the season,
we're ready to rock and roll.
It's my chance to go make the gold
and see what we're standing on right now,
and I hope to god I can actually make some gold today.
My new nozzle looks awesome underneath the water!
[brad] tell us when you want to us to idle up.
[kris] okay.
It's our first dive of the year.
Kris is down under the water.
[kris] okay, idle up.
[brad] okay, we're idling up. Be careful.
Breathing okay, kris?
[kris speaking]
it's a little bit of sand.
[brad] hopefully the sand's not too deep.
Bottom's here and our nozzle's like right here.
[kris speaking]
[brad] put us on some gold now.
[kris] right now I'm clearing off the sand
so I can hopefully see what's in the cobble.
[brad] so what's the bottom looking like down there?
[kris speaking]
sand for miles.
We got a real problem.
We don't have a long enough hose
and we're on a sand bed from hell.
[grunts]
[narrator] eight miles east...
[zeke] looks like steve's showing up,
and that'll be good, because he's going to have
a long dive day today.
We just hit daylight saving,
so the day just got a lot longer.
[narrator] for zeke tenhoff,
it's quickly getting to be do or die time.
[zeke] last week was one of the hardest weeks I've ever...
Yeah, I just got my ass kicked last week.
In every sense of the word.
This winter is not starting out very well for me.
I've had two dives, both of them were cut short
and we still don't have any gold.
I need seven or eight ounces just to keep going at all.
And right now, that's looking pretty grim.
Got to be honest with myself,
if I can't keep it going this winter,
I might just have to move on and do something else.
We could get gold here.
Best case scenario is that today
I have evidence that the gold is going to be followable.
And there's a lot more of it.
All right. Fired up.
[zeke speaking]
getting it in the box, that's the hard part.
[zeke] we're way behind this winter,
we need all the aspects of this operation
to start firing on all cylinders
to be able to catch up.
For the rest of this season
there is not very much margin for error,
like everything needs to go a lot more right than it has.
All right, I'm heading down.
Water's nice and clear.
Beautiful down here.
[gabe] all right. We got him in the water.
He's down. We're mining.
[zeke speaking]
you ready for your pumps?
[zeke speaking]
[gabe] [bleep] damn it.
Okay, this won't do. [bleep]
tailings hole isn't big enough,
and it's spilling that murky water down into his dive hole
and clouding him out.
[zeke speaking]
-yo, zeke. -[zeke] what's up?
[gabe speaking]
[zeke speaking]
just give us, like, five minutes.
[zeke] okay.
[gabe] just might be good to just have a bigger opening, you know?
[drill whirring]
[gabe speaking]
as you can see, even though I was trying to
get enough drainage out of the sluice box,
all the ice is so low that the water level
wants to sit above where the hole is.
It's kind of doing it at his dive hole.
But we're spilling right here so we're punching holes.
You can see we're draining right here.
But as we're trying to remedy that,
everything's backed up
through this
all the way around the backside to the generator.
[generator stops running]
no!
Tell him to come up!
Get him up, get him up right now.
Yeah, come up right now, please come up.
[gabe] he's coming up.
[gabe] it stopped for a second.
Dealing with the tailings hole,
we flooded the whole area,
and it kicked off his air compressor and everything.
We have to address this issue before we can keep mining.
[zeke speaking]
like, he's the one that came upon it, I didn't.
This is unbelievable.
I was hoping for a comeback today,
but instead we just fried our brand new generator
in a big puddle of salt water.
Yeah.
We have no gold, none.
And it feels like everything is falling apart.
It's like, how can I trust you guys
to keep an eye on what's going on
if you've overlooked something this basic?
Somebody should have noticed
that the [bleep] generators were in a puddle.
Like, seriously.
I think that's like the only thing that's actually really important.
First dive of the year, kris, put us on some gold now.
[kris speaking]
I hate sand.
[narrator] so far, kris kelly is hosed,
coming up short on his first dive of the season.
He doesn't have a long enough hose,
hot water is good, the suction's good,
but we're on sand, that's the problem right now.
[kris speaking]
the truth is...
[kris speaking]
hey, but everything's working great.
That's all that matters.
[kris speaking]
[kris] ahh!
-He just needs a longer hose. -[kris] [bleep]
kris' girlfriend told him that lots of times.
[kris speaking]
[brad] he's sitting right here, you want to talk to him?
[kris speaking]
-[andy] you on any gold? -[kris speaking]
okay.
[kris speaking]
[andy] wave that wand, dude.
You want the gold... You want me to get down there and find it for you?
[kris speaking]
well, just [bleep] discover it already.
[kris speaking]
tell him to come on up then.
Okay. Hook the dog and let's go.
[kris] [bleep]
kris is coming up, here he comes.
Oh, how was it?
Well, if there is gold here,
it's so far down
-that it's not profitable to get. -[brad] okay.
[kris] it's a sand pit down there too.
Visibility sucks.
This is another setback
with a season filled full of setbacks.
I've got brand new equipment
and I've got a great team behind me,
but the hose is short,
we're in debt and I'm not seeing any gold.
What kind of an operation is this?
This is such a joke, man,
and we still don't have any gold at all.
It's been one [bleep] problem after another problem.
I don't know what the [bleep] I'm going to do.
[narrator] and now another episode of social hour with vernon.
So what have we got here?
Next, batter up, kit smears.
[reading]
we're making money, we're making money.
We're on the gold.
This claim out here is loaded, baby.
[reading]
that's a good question.
I've had a few good seasons,
but I haven't topped 100 ounces since that year,
and the weather has a lot to do with it.
Somebody named "loves it big,"
"vernon..." [reading]
if I wasn't making more than I spend,
do you think I'd be here? No.
I mean, you don't know everything
there is to know in my life.
You can't operate on a zero balance.
I mean, I am actually making more than I spend, believe it or not.
All you guys out there saying,
"you know, vernon can't find gold,
couldn't find gold if he fell on it,"
well guess what, [bleep]. I'm doing it. You're not.
And you're watching.
Okay, I live it. You watch it on tv. [bleep]
[narrator] this has been another episode
of social hour with vernon.
[steve] whoo-hoo!
Here comes gabe to the rescue with a new generator.
Hallelujah.
Yippee. [coughs]
[narrator] after drowning the generator
in a pool of bering sea overflow,
gabe tenhoff's lassoed a replacement.
[narrator] but the snafu has cost them hours of valuable time
under the ice.
[gabe] I didn't want him out of the water
for long enough to really lose steam and get cold.
[steve] he's fine. He's now in the meditative mode, so he's good to go.
[zeke] I feel like we're losing our way this winter.
I know that there are different possible outcomes
for all situations,
but at present we are kind of going down a negative path.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
We just need to focus up,
double down and start off clean.
[steve] all right. Should fire right up.
Is it going?
So now we're back in the water in five minutes.
[gabe] there's countless things that can [bleep] out here,
and we just lost the generator to one.
How are you doing, zeke?
[zeke speaking]
are you still pretty murked out?
[zeke speaking]
[gabe speaking]
[zeke speaking]
[gabe speaking]
[zeke speaking]
[gabe speaking]
[zeke] ahh!
[gabe] all right. You got jammed up?
[zeke] ahh!
-[gabe] is he okay? -I don't know.
[gabe] are you okay?
Are you okay?
Hey, zeke?
[gabe] what's up, you all right?
[zeke speaking]
[gabe] what happened?
-[gabe] oh, buddy. -[zeke] yeah.
-[zeke] I'm way out there. -[gabe] yeah.
That's scary. Oh, god.
[zeke] I have noticed in life that sometimes
it seems like everything just lines up against you.
Maybe it's bad juju
or it's just things are out of your control.
Regardless of why,
that's exactly what's happening right now.
[gabe] it's like the scariest thing about ice mining.
Every single one of your breaths
could be your last breath.
And it sounds all melodramatic,
but it's actually completely accurate.
-[zeke] it's not an exaggeration. -[gabe] at all.
That's terrifying, and there's nothing that you can do about it up top.
I know how to find gold.
I've done it my whole entire working life,
so it's just maddening to me
that I can't get under the ice and find it.
We need to regroup and alter course fast
because right now my back is up against the wall.
That was a really scary one.
[narrator] back in nome.
[shawn] got to have a good winter.
Give us a nice start for summer
and take some of the pressure off.
There's definitely a pile of gold on the compound.
[joe] yeah, with all the minerals we're seeing over there.
There's something big.
-[joe] yeah. -There's something huge.
[narrator] breakdowns in one form or another
have hit the entire fleet.
But captain shawn pomrenke
still managed to get gold in the box.
Oh, that's the last of it.
Let's get the stuff dry and see what we have.
Put her on the scale.
[shawn] we've gotta make up for lost time.
Oh, yeah. 6, 7... 8, 9, 10... 12.85.
[joe] that'll do just fine.
Little bit of quartz to go home.
-Some little pickers. -[joe] yeah.
[narrator] 12.85 ounces is worth $24,000.
And while shawn hasn't hit the jackpot yet,
he may well be closing in on it.
I think there's a bigger pile out there to be had.
We're definitely on the trail.
[joe] mmm-hmm.
Oh, yeah.
We'll come across it.
We'll get on it.
This clean up proved that I'm still on the right track.
I'm gonna find that jackpot
and when I do, it's going to be something to remember.
I'd better because I'm still a long way
from that 120 ounces I need.
Not bad for getting shut down a couple of times.
[joe] oh, I'll take it.
[shawn] we're gonna hit some bigger gold here sooner or later.
[joe] oh, yeah.
[narrator] next time on bering sea gold.
[vernon] this is what you call a stellar day in nome.
It doesn't get much better than this.
By the end of the day, we'll have gold in the box.
[shawn] it's been one nightmare after another out here this year.
But at least the sun's up.
[kris] plan today is get gold.
We got a hose extension.
We're going to add another 25 feet.
And maybe everything's going to go good from now on.
[gabe] sun's shining.
We're going to get 6 hours on the box.
[zeke speaking]
-I'm going to pound it out so hard. -[gabe] I love it.
[shawn speaking]
[vernon] well, yippee ki yay.
Just keep sucking up that gold.
Yeah. Yeah.
[shawn speaking]
[kris speaking]