[narrator] on the bering sea...
The great gold game continues.
An underdog is the new chip leader.
[jerry over radio]
-[narrator] on a gold-rich claim... -You're rolling.
...He's looking to grow his stack.
The king of nome has lost his seat at the head of the table,
but he's eyeing an opportunity to vault back on top.
[zeke tenhoff] time to mark the spot.
[joe fullwood over radio]
[narrator] a mad scientist may be on his last bet...
I like this spot.
[zeke over radio] I know we'll find some gold here, 'cause I can feel it.
[narrator] ...As his chips continue to dwindle.
And deep in debt...
[kris kelly over radio]
this is what we do.
[narrator] a father-to-be hopes to deliver a bundle.
As the end of winter creeps ever closer, where will the cards fall?
[dynamic music playing]
[jerry] let's fire her up.
[vernon adkison] so far, so good.
[narrator] nome's current chip leader...
...Vernon adkison, is staying aggressive.
She's fired right up. Water is flowing.
[gary panos jr.] we saw lots of gold
last dive. Definitely eager to get back in there and make some money.
Put his diver in the water here pretty quick.
[narrator] this season, after years of risky ventures...
.29. That's [bleep] pitiful.
I can't see a speck. [scoffs]
total financial ruin. That's what I'm looking at.
-...And plenty of bumps in the road. -Damn it!
-[man 1 exclaims] -[man 2 laughing]
I'm sick of your [bleep]!
What do you mean I don't know what I'm [bleep] doing?
-[vernon] pull! -[man] watch out!
[exclaims]
[narrator] the salty veteran has turned the tables.
[diver over radio] I'm seeing gold, man.
That's the stuff of dreams, my friend.
[diver over radio] definitely, there is gold here.
[vernon over radio] well, yippee ki yay!
This is what I call "tubbing."
like these tubs full of gold.
[narrator] and finds himself
on top of the leaderboard.
-Hitting it hard? -I'm ready.
[narrator] now, he's looking to tempt fate
and ride his hot hand even harder.
We'll be putting gold in the box.
Finish it up.
[vernon] I like to gamble.
We've got a risky situation here.
We're on smoking hot gold.
But it's running right towards an open water lead,
and we're on thin ice that's getting thinner every day.
We could leave this hole and get closer to shore,
but we'd be leaving the sweet stuff behind.
So we gotta push our luck one more day.
Try to tap out this hole and hope like hell the ice holds up.
All right, get after it.
[vernon] jerry, jerry. You got me?
[jerry over radio] yup. On bottom.
So, jerry, that's some good-looking ground down there.
[jerry speaking]
yeah, yup. There you go. That sounds good.
[vernon] seeing gold everywhere.
[narrator] back in town...
[brad kelly] kris, we're here. What do you got for us?
[kris] well, I've got news going on today.
You got brie coming too, so it's double trouble. What's going on?
[narrator] with everything on the line both on and off the ice,
kris kelly is chasing a full house.
Okay, um, brie's gonna be giving birth.
So the baby could come pretty much any time right now.
She's going to anchorage.
And then if it happens, she goes into labor, I'm gonna fly there.
I'm already nervous enough. The money we owe plus the baby on the way.
To make things even more complicated, you don't give birth in nome.
It's too small. You fly to anchorage and you do it there,
so that's what my girlfriend's doing right now.
I'll keep mining for a little longer,
and I'll join her in a week or two.
Don't worry about the operation. It'll run smooth.
Just worry about brie and the baby.
Yeah, I'm gonna worry about brie and the baby,
but, you know, I also have my other children I gotta take care of.
-We'll be sad when you go, captain kris, but, uh... -[andy kelly] no, we won't.
...I'm pretty sure the, uh, operation will prevail.
-Everything will work great. -[brad] yeah, everything will be fine.
The plan is, when I leave, my dad and brother will run things when I'm gone.
As nervous as I am about becoming a new father,
I'm even more nervous about leaving my dad
and brother in charge of my operation.
[brad] anyway, well, I'm glad you're having a baby.
Get you a car seat and you and brie can drive around--
-[andy] a minivan. -Oh, minivans.
-[brie laughs] -classic. I love them.
Oh, yeah.
You know what? We're not buying a minivan.
Basically, I envision everything collapsing without me here.
So, in the meantime, I need to get as much gold as I can
before I have to get on that plane.
-[chuckles] -we don't need a minivan.
You would look sexy in a minivan. I might even buy it for you myself.
-We don't need a [bleep] minivan. -[andy] oh, yeah.
[brad] you need a minivan.
-[andy] yup. -[kris] okay, we're done. Let's go to work.
[narrator] ten miles west...
-[shawn] heck, yeah. Beautiful day out. -[car door closes]
fire it up and get... Get in the water finally.
It's time to get to work!
[narrator] shawn pomrenke is looking to reclaim his top spot on the leaderboard
by placing all his chips on the hunt for a fabled jackpot.
We've been following gold from the south here, working our way north.
We just haven't hit that big slab,
that big pile, that we need yet.
And it's right here somewhere.
Last time out, I thought the season was over.
See that?
There was so much heavy snow on the ice, it was flooding us out.
So I went and got a dozer and cleared it all out.
-[joe] I'm excited... -[shawn] oh, yeah.
-...To head down there and see what's down there. -Yeah.
It took time, but I'm willing to gamble...
That the trail of the ancient riverbed's gonna lead to that jackpot,
and that's right under our feet.
If not, all that work was for nothing, and I'm in big trouble.
I still need nearly 70 ounces to pay all the bills this winter.
The season's coming to an end.
It's time to make some money right now.
[over radio] guys got me up there?
[joe over radio] loud and clear.
[shawn] yeah, the light's amazing.
What kind of bottom are you seeing down there?
[shawn] there's a little bit of sand.
And there's some very interesting-looking ground.
All right, sounds pretty good.
[shawn speaking]
[joe] hopefully we'll make some money today.
We need it. Season's coming to an end.
[shawn speaking]
[narrator] two miles east...
[zeke] I know we'll find some gold.
I can feel it, dude.
...Zeke tenhoff is altering his game theory...
Well, so the kellys are right over there.
I believe we can be pretty confident
-that there's not gonna be any gold in that area. -[scoffs]
...Moving his entire operation
to the eastern edge of the tomcod claim.
Kellys are right there, so...
I just kind of wanna go, like... Go right between them.
We started out close to town at that west beach claim.
But it was a disaster. We barely got any gold at all.
So now we're moving down to tomcod.
We're completely starting over with only a few weeks left in the mining season.
It's a huge risk, but at this point I'm running out of chips to play.
[zeke chuckles] yeah!
Well, it's nice and smooth and flat. We got this big flat pan.
I love it. So glad we're out here.
Can you pull it up a little?
[zeke] our backs are pretty much up against the wall at this point.
I figure I need about eight ounces to keep going this summer,
and right now I'm sitting at only about three.
[zeke] oh, there we go. I think that's the bottom. Let down more?
I know there's gonna be gold around here somewhere. It is tomcod.
We gotta hit it on our first hole.
We don't have any time to waste out here.
[gabe tenhoff] you generally find gold where, like,
certain layers intersect with other layers.
That's what I'm gonna look for.
[gabe speaking]
[zeke speaking]
[gabe speaking]
[gabe] we found cobble.
This is dope. I like this spot.
As far as, like, our first hole at tomcod, it meets, like, enough of my criteria
to, uh, start the treasure hunt right here.
-[zeke] it's off to the races. -[gabe whoops]
just tons of flat ice and the thickness is about three feet,
which is great for this late in the season.
We're on a nice little patch of cobble
that's at about 36 feet of depth, which is...
It's actually kind of dangerous.
I could get the bends if I'm not careful,
and it's a long way back to the surface if something goes wrong.
Ready to get on a new hole.
But like I said, we gotta start taking chances now.
-[zeke over radio] com check. -Com check. You got me?
[zeke] yup.
[zeke speaking]
-seriously? -[zeke] just a tiny little island of cobble.
And that's what we found? Everything else is sand?
Usually when you find cobble and sand bordering,
it's like a line of cobble that stretches for a ways, and then sand.
What we found was one tiny little island of cobble in an ocean of sand.
We'll see if there's any gold in it.
[over radio] keep me updated.
[zeke speaking]
[gabe] we'll find the gold out here for sure. No doubt in my mind.
[narrator] all around nome, bets are being placed.
And nine miles west...
[kris] okay, start it up!
Some days, we look like we know what we're doing.
[narrator] with a baby on the way...
[kris] we need to get as much gold as we can today.
We need to grind it out. We need to work hard.
We need to kill ourselves to get that gold.
...Kris kelly is ready to deliver.
[andy] all I can do is go down there and get as much as I can today.
-[kris] want-- -hand me that 7up over there.
[kris] look, I love my dad and brother.
When I go to anchorage, they're gonna be on their own,
which is like leaving two little kids in charge of the house
while you go away on vacation.
Make sure you get into those crevices as far as you can.
-'cause that's where the concentration... -I know.
-...Of the gold really is in those dips. -I know.
We need 25 ounces to be in the black this winter and right now I only have 14.
Let's grind out the good [bleep] today.
It's important we stack up the gold now.
Andy will go down first. I need him to get on the gold, so I can just clean up.
This is what we do.
Okay. Put your light on and go to work.
Remember today, the word of the day
[andy speaking]
work.
How's it going down there, andy?
[andy over radio] going good, jake.
[kris kelly over radio]
[andy over radio]
[kris over radio]
[andy over radio]
okay, tell me when you're on gold.
[andy over radio]
okay. All right.
[andy over radio]
andy's down. He's on gold right off the bat.
That's pretty easy, because the nozzle's
right next to the [bleep] hole,
so it's pretty hard not to be on gold.
[kris over radio]
[andy over radio]
[kris laughs over radio]
I love this.
Oh, yeah. That's awesome.
Boom! Andy's on great gold, can't wait to get down there.
Hopefully, we get a long day in,
make the most of it and keep going the rest of the week.
Okay, you're doing a great job, buddy, keep up the good work.
[andy over radio]
well, if andy's happy, I'm happy.
We gotta make our money.
[narrator] two miles west...
[joe fullwood over radio]
[shawn pomrenke over radio]
[narrator] the good news for shawn pomrenke,
the ground on the new spot could not look more promising.
[shawn over radio]
[narrator] the bad news, after three hours, it's still not a winning hand.
[shawn over radio]
seeing all the heavies down there that we're seeing,
it tells me there's a pile of gold somewhere.
It's gonna be really concentrated and really rich.
It'll be good when we hit it.
[shawn over radio]
[joe over radio] all right.
[shawn coughs]
really good ground. There's definitely some gold down there.
But, I got a idea.
There's no question there's gold here.
By the mineral deposits,
there's gonna be a motherlode here, somewhere.
But, we're not finding it yet.
Instead of wasting days, trying to drill holes,
I got a way to find it, right now.
Got the dowsing rods out.
My dad taught me how to dowse when I was a kid,
now we just gotta find the right spot here.
Using dowsing rods, some people say it's science,
some people say it's magic, some people say it's intuition.
But, I'm a believer.
Where're you at, gold? Where are you at?
Not here.
Basically, you balance the rods in your hands
and as you walk over different types of material, including gold,
it'll pull them together.
And when they cross, it's like x marking the spot.
That's where the gold is.
Where are you at? Where are you... Ooh.
Ooh.
Oh, little pull, little... Oh.
Oh, yep. Right... Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Right on, they're pulling hard.
This is the spot. That'll work.
There's gold here.
I'm gonna send joe down to get it.
We're gonna win big, trust me.
Time to mark the spot.
[joe over radio]
loving it.
[joe over radio]
get it, joe, get it.
Whoo!
All right.
Joe's on it now.
[joe over radio]
you know what? Some people laugh at my technique.
But, if you bet on me, you're gonna almost always come out on top.
They don't call me mr. Gold for nothing.
All this hard work is gonna pay off. It's gonna pay off big.
[joe over radio]
[zeke tenhoff] uh, give us an update, there, bud.
How's it looking?
[gabe tenhoff over radio]
[narrator] zeke tenhoff is betting big on tomcod.
[gabe over radio]
[narrator] but, so far, gold just hasn't been in the cards.
How much overburden are you in?
[gabe over radio]
yeah.
[gabe over radio] I'm gonna come on up.
[zeke over radio] yeah, bunk hole, enough said.
Find a new hole that's not bunk.
You just can't expect your first hole,
on totally unfamiliar ground, to be killer.
The truth is, we just don't have time,
this late in the season, for something like this to happen.
[gabe] it's a treasure hunt.
[zeke] yeah, love a treasure hunt.
Treasure hunts are long and arduous, sometimes.
Most of the time, it's spent not finding treasure.
All I can do is stay confident tomcod is loaded
and hope that the next hole will be the one that we're hoping for.
But, I gotta be honest, I'm getting really worried.
[narrator] eleven miles east...
Hey, jerry, give me an update, how's it looking?
[jerry over radio]
all right, you're rolling.
[narrator] vernon adkison's big gamble is paying off.
Not in spades, but in gold.
Well, you've been down for five hours.
[over radio] what do you think you're gonna shoot for?
[jerry over radio]
[vernon adkison over radio] well, that's what I wanna hear, man.
Stop here and come out.
[jerry over radio]
[vernon] jerry is an absolute beast. He has no fear.
He went down, lead be damned and killed it.
He cleaned out that hole until there was nothing left.
When you're dredging, you could see the gold all through it,
everywhere down there.
Literally, the best gold I've seen.
That lead may be getting wider
and the ice may be getting thinner,
but we've thrown caution to the wind and cleaned up.
We got a good dive in.
I cleaned up that hole.
We got some gold in the box.
The heat is on.
[narrator] ten miles west...
How's it going down there?
[andy over radio] it's going good.
[kris over radio] hey, are you still on great gold?
[andy over radio]
[kris over radio] what happened to great gold?
[andy over radio]
[narrator] knowing he'll soon have to step away from the table,
kris kelly is looking to increase his chip stack, before he goes.
[kris] how are you feeling?
Are you okay?
[andy over radio]
[brad kelly] I'll make andy a couple hot dogs.
He's burning off more calories than he's ever burned off before.
Are you getting hungry?
[andy over radio]
dad's got dogs on the grill.
[andy over radio]
[kris] [bleep] yeah, dude.
I'm a person who likes to eat.
Hey, you tell that guy there's hotdogs ready and he runs up that ladder.
Come on, let's get some hotdogs, baby.
I know I'm gonna have to go to anchorage
any day right now, so I need to bank some serious gold before I go.
Luckily, andy's seeing the best gold that he's ever seen.
That's a huge statement to come out of that mouth.
I really just wanna get down there and rake it up.
This is exactly how I thought things would go today.
How's it looking down there?
[kris over radio]
[brad over radio] so, what are you seeing?
[kris over radio]
[brad over radio] cleaned up pretty good, huh?
[kris over radio]
there was gold right where that nozzle is, leading to that boulder.
[brad] there's gold right where that nozzle is, leading to the boulder.
[kris over radio]
[brad over radio] he said he got your gold too already.
[kris over radio]
can't lift your own gold--
-it's on a boulder. -[brad] it's under that big boulder.
It's on the boulder.
Aw [bleep]. Tell him to come up.
[kris over radio]
[brad speaking]
[kris over radio]
[brad over radio]
[kris speaking]
[brad speaking]
come on, all the way out.
[kris] well, that fell apart in a hurry.
Right when I really needed to get this gold, everything falls apart.
Of course.
It's a spark-plug, burnt.
You gotta be on zero air right now.
[andy] pop your mask.
What a [bleep] joke.
That's it, we're done for the day.
We'll have to fix the air compressor.
Hopefully, the gold andy was on is good,
and it'll make up for me not diving.
Disappointed.
That's it. Kris is done diving.
[kris] it's always one thing or another.
[shawn] you copy, joe?
How're things going down there?
[joe speaking]
[shawn] hell, yeah! Good job, joe.
[joe speaking]
[narrator] for shawn pomrenke and joe fullwood,
the dowsing has proven rousing.
How'd it go down there?
Whoo! Some nice gold down there.
Nice, nice, cold gold.
[shawn] earlier today, it looked like we might come up empty.
But it's too late in the season
and we still need too many ounces.
I wasn't gonna let that happen.
Can't wait to weigh it out.
[joe]
well, it took a lot of work to get here.
Yep, a little bit.
The sun's shining.
The only thing brighter than that is the gold down there.
-That's right. -Suck it up.
[shawn] what a beautiful day.
[narrator] back in town...
[vernon] alright, let's do it.
Alright, cool. I'm happy.
[narrator] sometimes to the gamblers go the spoils.
Gold!
I'm a greedy man when it comes to great gold.
I'm will to do anything to get it.
Most people wouldn't have stayed on that hole.
Not with the lead so close.
But that's okay.
They can hold that bank door open for me
when I come walking in with all my gold.
Well, let's see what we got.
[vernon] alright, let's go.
That's two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Nine. Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Twelve and a quarter.
[narrator] 12.26 ounces is worth over 23 grand.
Alright, hey. That's pretty good, that...
Considering the time we had on the box, uh...
-Yeah. Yeah, we're cracking. We're cracking. -Yep.
The gold train just keeps on rolling.
Sooner or later that ice is all gonna break up.
But until that happens, we'll keep on pushing.
200 ounces could be within my reach.
No one's gonna top me this winter.
We keep after it like this and, uh, we're gonna make it.
[narrator] 10 miles west...
[zeke speaking]
[narrator] time is running out on the season.
Our first hole over there was a dud.
It was just a little tiny cobble patch.
Wasn't really worth running.
[narrator] and zeke's chip stack is dangerously low.
If he doesn't hit pay dirt soon,
he may bust out of the game.
[zeke] I made a choice.
Instead of hunting for scraps on the west claim.
We came all the way over to tomcod.
And, essentially, I have three weeks left this winter
to find enough gold to keep going.
And I'm already having major concerns.
We're finding some cobble patches in this area, it's a little shallower.
Um, the... The question on our minds, though,
is if shawn already dug these places up with the christine rose.
It's possible that that happened.
Zeke moved on down to the tomcod.
I want him to do good.
It's time to check on zeke.
I wanna get him on the gold as soon as possible so I can get that royalty going.
But my hunch, by where these guys set up,
that's not gonna happen.
-[zeke] hey, shawn. -[shawn] how's it going?
[shawn] I was looking on the gps when I pulled up,
and we got cuts all through here.
-Really? -Yeah.
Mmm.
We're right at the edge of where we were.
Pretty beat up from here on in.
You go, like, 80 feet and we haven't ever dug out there.
Really?
[shawn] I got the gps in the track truck.
You wanna take a look?
[shawn speaking]
[zeke] yeah.
-So... -Okay.
[shawn speaking]
shawn's been mining in tomcod for, like, 20 years.
So he can steer me away from the places that he knows that he's already mined out.
This is a life saver.
My intuition tells me that we're on the right track
and that, I think, we're gonna be able to pull this off.
Right on. Thank you, shawn.
[shawn] yeah. No problem, zeke.
[zeke] you've helped me out a lot.
-Good luck, man. Yep. -See you.
Okay, I'll talk to you. Goodbye.
Weather conditions this year...
Hey, please quiet on set.
Hello and welcome to another edition
of "kris kelly's secret guide to successful mining."
today, we're gonna be talking about the weather this ice mining season
and what the hell went wrong.
For some strange reason, we got more snow
than anybody can ever remember getting here.
Like, look at this crap.
That's, like, 4-feet bank of... Of snow right here.
And this has been plowed a couple times.
The weight of the snow pushed down the ice like a dip.
As soon as we cut our dive pool,
all the water started pumping out.
That is a recipe for disaster.
Careful, okay.
[kris] damn!
One more time, explanation for everybody.
Lot of snow.
Push ice down.
Make water come up.
Flood everything.
Bad flood. Bad.
What else can I say?
That's it? Okay, good.
Thank you very much for watching another episode
of "kris kelly's secret guide to successful mining,"
talking about what happened this winter with the weather.
[shawn] one of the hardest winters we've ever had here.
The snow load on the ice.
Yep.
If we didn't have that dozer, we would have been done for.
We got an onslaught of snow dumped on us.
But we figured out a way to beat it.
We got out the dozer.
We got on unbelievable ground.
We couldn't get on the gold.
So I busted out the dowsing rods.
Gold mining's about adjusting, problem-solving, and not giving up.
Now, we're gonna reap all the rewards.
Let's see what we got here, joe.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen.
Twenty-one.
Twenty-two.
22.45.
[narrator] 22.45 ounces is worth a hefty $42,000.
Mr. Gold has gone all in.
And it's paying off.
[shawn] I'll take that any day.
We're definitely on the trail
but I don't think this is it yet.
I think there's a bigger pile out there to be had.
[joe] mmm-hmm.
We'll come across it.
We'll get on it.
We've been hot on the trail of this jackpot all winter.
This is the best gold we've seen yet.
It's only a matter of time before we unearth
a massive concentration of gold down there.
It's gonna be a thing of beauty.
We're definitely on the trail.
[narrator] across town...
[kris] we'd be at work right now if ken didn't need this money.
Hopefully, there's a lot of gold in here.
[narrator] kris kelly is getting the scale ready for the latest gold haul.
You can never know how much gold you really get
until it's in a container in your hand.
[narrator] but that's not the only precious thing
in his life about to be weighed.
My girlfriend went to anchorage ahead of me
just in case she went into labor early.
And guess what?
When I was coming off the ice, she called me.
The baby's coming, like, any minute.
She just got there and she's starting to pump the thing out already.
I feel bad for her.
She's all by herself right now.
There's no flight until tomorrow, so I'm stuck here till then.
It breaks my heart.
I really wanted to be there.
But this is the life of a gold miner.
I had to make sure we were getting gold.
The gold's not just for me.
It's for my girlfriend and the baby, too.
This is their future now.
[andy] come on, kris. Pour it in there. Let's see what we got.
[kris] here we go.
There's one.
There's 1 ounce.
Yeah, 1 ounce is too little.
-No, you know what-- -2 ounces!
4 ounces.
4 ounces, andy.
[kris] there's 7 ounces.
9 ounces.
[kris exhales]
[kris] 9.17-ounces.
[narrator] 9.17-ounces is worth over $17,000.
A hefty chunk of change needed to pay off the leased equipment.
Pay ken off, and then we can keep running.
[cell phone ringing]
[kris] oh, here we go. Breathe.
Are you okay? Everything good?
[brie speaking]
well, that's good.
Hi, baby.
Oh, she's cute.
[brie speaking]
well, that's good.
[brie speaking]
I'm sorry I wasn't there.
[brie speaking]
I'll see you soon, I'm coming very soon.
And I'm real happy.
[andy] can I see my niece?
Yeah, okay. Here's andy, he's looking at her.
[andy] oh, she's adorable.
[brad] she's a cutie, congratulations.
Thank you very much.
There she is.
[kris] it kind of puts everything into perspective in a hurry.
That baby girl is my responsibility
for the rest of my life.
Every ounce of gold is suddenly that much more important.
That's it. It's official. I'm a father.
The world of problems have begun.
[all cheer]
[narrator] vernon and shawn are neck and neck.
As the surly captain holds the tiniest of edges.
[narrator] next time on bering sea gold...
[brad] we're on big gold right now.
Coarse gold. Fine gold.
[andy] kris ain't here, so I gotta keep this [bleep] going.
This is how we need to run every day.
[andy] yep.
We're on the best ground that you can imagine.
[radio chatter] look at all that!
Whoo!
Leave no gold behind.
[shawn speaking]
damn!
[zeke grunts]
[gabe speaking]
[zeke speaking]
damn.
[shawn laughs]
[shawn speaking]
perfect.
[shawn speaking]
we'll finish this damn season with a bang.
Whoo!
[kris] here she is, the newest member of the kelly's.
Hi, my baby.