[dustin] oh, my [bleep]!
That's rough!
Don't fall in.
[bleep] dang!
Oh, no!
It's destroyed.
[carlos] holy [bleep]!
[exclaiming]
Oh, gosh!
[dustin] right now, we don't have a dredge.
The water's too high.
The snow's almost down to us.
This might be quitting time, man.
[narrator] in alaska's chilkat mountains,
Dustin hurt and his crew
Are battling the first storms of winter
After investing a month
Digging out the plunge pool at the chute.
They were inches from a bedrock pay day.
[carlos] that hole of ours,
That beautiful [bleep] gold cache of ours, gone.
Getting kind of late in the season but we can't leave.
We've got the chute going.
We got to try to get them prepared.
[dustin] I don't know, wes.
I don't know if we can come back from this, man.
This looks pretty bad.
We may not be able to fix this.
[wes] this is [bleep], man.
This might be the end of our season, today.
Today, our season is done.
[dustin] two dives away from finishing the chute.
Probably the coolest anomaly we've ever gotten into.
My dredge got snapped in half.
Fred's taken off for home, and my crew wants to leave, too.
Maybe this is a [bleep] good excuse to do that.
[narrator] on the season finale of gold rush: White water.
It's all about will power. How much do you want the gold?
This is what we have to deal with.
[bleep]
[fred] the snow, it's here.
You're about to get dumped on.
[narrator] five years ago...
[dustin] my [bleep]! Look at that.
-[narrator] ...Father and son set out on a dream... -[dustin] yee-ha!
[narrator] ...To find a pot of gold at the bottom of mckinley creek.
[dustin] can't believe you got me to gold dive.
It's like getting hooked on crack.
[narrator] the dream has turned into a groundbreaking hunt...
[dustin laughing]
-...For a fortune in gold. -Woo!
Woo! Oh, yeah!
Oh, my god!
[narrator] dustin's crew took on the fiercest of water...
The water is just so fast.
-Oh! -[indistinct shouting]
Pull him up. Pull him up!
As soon as you panic here you pretty much die.
[narrator] ...That led to the richest ground ever.
[dustin] that's some big [bleep] gold, boy!
-Yee-ha! -Yeah!
[narrator] while fred chased bedrock 20 feet deep...
[man] let's get some gold!
If we can get to the bottom of this thing we can get gold.
[narrator] ...That got him the biggest nuggets of his life...
[fred] oh! Big chunk of gold.
[narrator] ...Before the walls collapsed around them...
-Oh, my god! Oh! -Hey, help him.
-[narrator] ...Ending their season. -[grunts]
It's not looking good.
[narrator] now, winter has hit...
[dustin] take a look at that waterfall.
I don't think you're gonna see it like that again.
[narrator] ...And as fred says goodbye to alaska
For what could be his last season ever...
I wanted to prove there was gold in the bottom, and I did.
[narrator] ...Dustin must make a decision that could mean life...
It's either get this thing ready or go home.
[narrator] ...Or death.
One slip here, dude, I'm done for.
Oh!
[bleep] I can't hold it!
[screaming]
[dustin] I ain't gonna lie.
If there was a time to leave, now would be it.
[laughing] it's snowing,
It's raining, it's flooding.
My dredge just broke in half.
We can't leave this.
We've got a bunch of gold sitting there waiting for us.
[carlos] we're at that split in the road, man.
Take a left. Take a right, man. We're at that split in the road.
Where do we go?
I don't know how much damage there is,
But, uh, we're in an area right now at the chute
That we just absolutely do not want to leave.
And there's a lot of ounces worth every second.
[carlos] I would rather take the "what if" out of the equation.
[wes] yeah, I agree with you.
-Dig the hole? -Yeah.
[dustin] okay.
Let's get this thing out of the water.
Find out if we can fix it.
[narrator] in rockfall ravine,
Raging white water from an early winter storm
Has wreaked havoc on dustin's dive site.
The fate of their season and their final gold total
Now depend on their severely damaged dredge.
Well, I'm gonna pull this dredge out of the water
And see how much I can fix.
How much is impossible to fix.
I think I had a come-along sitting right there
That we're missing right now.
Can you see if there's a...
If there's a come-along? I think it was sitting right there.
[carlos] holy crap!
This is crazy!
-Can't doubt it. -Oh, I got it.
-You got it! -Oh, hey.
[dustin] I'll be damned. Look at that.
Can you believe that [bleep]?
All right.
Let's take the sluice box off
And we'll drag the dredge up,
And we get it out of water somehow.
[james] that jet flare is done for, gone.
[dustin] all right, let's go.
Come on, baby.
[wes] that'll work.
[dustin] do you need more level?
Not really.
Engines are leveled. They're leveled enough to even check the oil.
[dustin] what do you think, wes?
[wes] engines look all right.
Sluice box is broke, but I don't see
Too many things that are torn up too bad.
I wanna take the engines up to camp
And make sure we don't have water in the gas.
Water in the oil.
I believe we can get it back going, though.
-Yeah? -Yeah,
I think we can scrounge enough stuff to get it back together.
-Hell, yeah! -[bleep] I love you, man.
The glass just got half full.
[dustin] all right. We need a new jet flare.
There may or may not be water inside the engines.
This dredge has been through hell, man.
I think fred's got some parts that we might be able to use
To fix our sluice box.
That's the biggest issue with our dredge right now.
Everything else looks like it's pretty much salvageable.
[carlos] we still got time in the season, man, to pull this out.
We still got time in the season
To have a good winter.
The guys, they're dead set on digging this hole,
So I'm gonna make it happen, if I can.
[narrator] while dustin pushes on,
Determined to add to his 33 ounce gold total,
A half mile upstream...
[fred] how goes the clean up?
[man] yeah, we're seeing a lot of gold
As it trickles its way down the sluice box here.
-Yes! -[laughing]
[narrator] after almost being buried alive
At the bottom of their 22-foot dive hole,
Fred has made the difficult decision to end their season,
Just as they uncovered the best ground of their lives.
[fred] well, we hit the bedrock.
We found a jackpot in the bottom of that hole.
And, boy, was I impressed with the nuggets we got out of there.
[scott] looking good, boys.
I'm expecting this cleanup to be the best one of the season.
We got on our best gold right at the end there.
So, this should produce a really good cleanup.
-Oh! -Saw that plate go down.
-Oh, that plate? Yeah. -Yeah.
There's a lot of gold in that.
All right. We'll get it all dried out and then we'll take a look
-And see how much we got total. -All right.
[fred] it's been a long season.
Tough, hard season on all of us.
We came out looking for...
I don't know what everybody else was looking for,
I was looking for a pot of gold,
About that big, full of gold.
-I think we all were. -Yeah.
Well, what we got is just this,
And we got this.
It's all we got.
[scott] you're kidding me.
[bleep]
It's not a whole lot of it. Probably four, five ounces.
Uh, doesn't look like much,
But the nuggets are just super impressive.
We were just trying to prove that there was gold in trifecta,
And we did it.
[paul] for just a little area that we had cleaned off of bedrock,
That is a lot of gold.
Essentially, what we did is like
What you would do on a normal mine site.
We drilled the hole with the dredge.
We tested material, and it proves to have
A lot of gold per yard.
So, if we can find a way to move all that overburden,
We could get down to that bucket of gold,
We know is down there. We know it's there now
After seeing that. Look at that, that's...
-[ryan] that is chunky. -That is chunky.
-Yeah, that ain't flat. -Uh-uh.
[ryan] that's got some width, and some height. That's beautiful.
You were right, fred, man.
You said if we got down to bedrock we'd get nuggets.
-And we sure as hell did. -[fred] yeah.
The main thing is we found out
That there is gold in the trifecta here.
But the hole is just not safe.
The walls are crumbling.
We have no business being down there.
Just time for us to get the hell out of here.
[all] yeah.
[scott] pretty bittersweet today.
We got to see all the gold that we got this season,
Which, I mean, it wasn't very much.
It wasn't what we were hoping for.
But, we at least proved
That there's really good gold here at trifecta.
[fred] it's not a lot of gold, four, five ounces there,
But, uh, I had a theory.
I wanted to prove the theory was right.
Theory was damn right.
The bottom of trifecta is littered with gold.
I had to call it an unsafe dive site.
I personally will never mine in this hole again.
I always wanted to prove there was gold
In the bottom of trifecta
And I did.
[ryan] last day!
-[scott] last day. -[paul] last day.
-[fred] oh, yeah. -Y'all made it.
-Yeah. -Oh!
What's going on, guys?
-Yeah! -How's it going, fred?
Ryan, how you all doing?
-What's going on, wes? -What's going on, guys?
-How you doing, buddy? -[carlos] all right, all right, man.
So you guys are done for the season, man.
[fred] let's just put it this way.
You saw what we were diving into,
You would say, "holy [bleep]."
The walls were coming down on us.
He touched anything and, poof, it fell.
Yeah.
That's exactly how come I called it.
The walls are getting too dangerous to work around.
Can we... Can we put trifecta to rest?
Trifecta is, uh, for big equipment.
That's... I mean...
I wouldn't put my dredge back in it.
[fred] I wouldn't... I wouldn't, either.
We've gone in there.
Basically done a prospecting job,
Found out there's gold
Mostly all on the bottom, within two feet of the bottom.
[dustin] speaking of gold. How'd you all do, man?
You know, we had hoped that...
My hope was I was gonna dig down there
And I was going to find that bucket full of leprechaun gold.
Well, I didn't hit the lottery.
[all laughing]
[carlos] let's see what you got.
-[fred] there it is. -Holy cow.
Holy crap.
[fred] damn, maybe I do need to get a [bleep] excavator in there.
[carlos] look at that freaking... Look at that freaking nugget.
Look at this freaking nugget.
[indistinct chatter]
Dude, you should be proud of that, man.
[fred] we are proud of that.
[dustin] but I dig that you all did.
I'm gonna tell you the truth. That's ten times more
Than I thought you were gonna get in that area.
And that's awesome.
[james] we've been up there.
You didn't way the hell better than we did.
[carlos] dude, you guys proved it, man.
All I can say, we've, uh, a decent year.
A good year.
Uh, and a happy year.
We've found out what we needed to find out.
There is gold on the bottom.
We're going to have to pick it up and haul ass.
Hey, y'all get down there and find that pile of pot...
Leprechaun gold that I didn't get.
[all laughing]
-I'm glad y'all had a good season. -[all] yeah.
-We appreciate all your advice. -Yeah.
All right, guys. Good luck.
-We'll see you. -Happy travels.
-Yeah, guys. -You all take care.
[dustin] I'm glad for fred. He proved that there is gold there.
I spent two seasons there
And didn't get hardly that much gold.
[fred] it's bittersweet.
Been a long season.
Didn't get a lot of gold, but we sure proved a point.
[narrator] up ahead...
[james] I cannot believe it.
I got three big nuggets in this hole here.
Three nuggets! We're there!
-Yeah. I'm coming up. -Copy that.
Clear the hole! Stop!
-[bleep] -hey!
[ryan] I'm ready. Let's, uh,
Get that sucker loaded and hit the road.
Get out of here.
[narrator] after five months in the remote alaskan wilderness,
Fred prepares to get out while he still can.
The snow, it's here.
What that tells us?
"fred, pack up and leave. You about to get dumped on."
I'm happy with the way, uh, everything went this year.
It took a hell of a team effort
To get down to the bottom of that hole,
But we did prove that there's a lot of gold there.
[ryan] you know, it's kind of bittersweet,
But at least we got them nice, big nuggets.
And that put a smile on all of our faces.
So, in my eyes, that's a great season.
[scott] end of my first season as a gold miner.
It's sweet 'cause I get to go home to my wife and kids,
But it's bitter because I wanna go home
With a hell of a lot more gold.
[fred] wish dustin and his crew tons of gold.
We found out where the gold is also
In the bottom of trifecta.
Whether I'll be here next year or not, stay tuned.
[wes] so they're pulling out already?
You know, he seems to think it's gonna snow any day now.
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, it's getting cold quick.
Sooner than normal seems like, but...
I wanna finish this before it snows.
Yeah, I do, too.
And I hope there's something down there.
We leave, we'll never find out.
I know. I know.
[narrator] while fred's crew head south,
Dustin is staying longer than ever before,
Hoping to get a pile of gold in the chute
That would change their lives and send them home rich.
[dustin] everybody's exhausted.
This just seems like we shouldn't be here anymore.
But I want to be able to dig this hole.
[narrator] but the rest of their season depends on
If wes can repair their broken dredge
And drowned engines.
[wes] drained the oil, drained the fuel.
If they don't start, it could be the end of our season.
[dustin] what about the jet flare?
[narrator] the part that connects the hose
To the sluice box is broken beyond repair.
Uh, we broke the jet flare on the sluice box.
Thankfully, fred gave me permission to go down
And take the jet flare off of his dredge,
So, hopefully we can get this thing back on track.
[wes] so fred has something, huh?
[james] yeah.
-What do you think? -That's exactly what we need.
-Oh, hell, yeah. -It has the hooks, too.
All right, man. Let's get this thing hooked up.
[carlos] good thing that, uh, fred's not using it no more.
It seems like timing was in our favor.
[dustin] how we looking, man?
[wes] it's done, man. It's ready to go.
As far as it goes now we're ready to dredge.
We just need the engine to work right.
[carlos] we'll send james across real quick.
He can get the engines out himself.
We'll bringing him back up, help wes load the thing up,
And then we'll meet you down there, dude.
So we sent the two engines back down.
Uh, did a little bit of work to the sluice box.
Got it put back together.
We're going to see if we can, uh,
Get the dredge back working today.
All right, now we can get back in the damn water.
We need to finish this chute.
If we can fight through this water,
I know there's gold down there.
-Whee! -Look at that snow over there.
[laughs]
Oh. [laughs] look at all that snow.
[wes] I know, right?
-[carlos] holy [bleep]! Man, it's still raging. -[wes] yeah.
[carlos] holy moly. She still looks angry, dude.
You can dive that, james.
[james] it'd be a rough one,
But I probably could.
-You just wanna do the engines first? -Yeah.
[james] tell us what you need
-And we'll get you what you need. -[wes] um, the engine.
[james laughs]
Wes fixed the sluice box.
We're just putting back humpty dumpty back together again.
[wes] let me see.
Move back and forth, and I think it'll go right on.
Oh, you'll have to get out.
-That's it. -That's pretty good.
Just tighten the clamps and we're good.
[dustin] well, you guys got it back together
Just perfectly, man.
It actually looks a little stronger than it was.
All right, guys,
Let's get this thing back in the water!
[narrator] the dredge may be assembled
But wes can only test the drowned engines
Once it is back on the water.
[wes] looking good, man.
[carlos] no. That's it, man.
I think that's it.
Let me check it. I think we're here.
That's looking good. All right, keep it right there.
I'd be happy with this.
-[rumbling] -oh!
We got it back in the water.
We fueled up and ready to go?
Moment of truth.
-Let's see if she starts up. -Moment of truth.
Ready?
Yeah, I think so.
No luck.
I'm sure it'll work.
Come on!
I don't have time for this.
[engine starts]
-There it goes. -[carlos exclaiming]
[laughing]
I love it!
I love it, love it, love it, love it.
Time to suit up, man. You ready to dive?
We are back in the game.
Just like the dredge,
It looked like a disaster yesterday,
But today, it's brand-new.
We're hungry.
We are hungrier than ever.
Mother nature kicked our butt.
But now we're gonna dredge with a vengeance.
[dustin] hopefully with any luck,
We'll be able to dig out the chute,
Find out what's at the bottom.
Hopefully, there's a whole bunch of gold down there
'cause we are putting a tremendous
Amount of effort to get down there.
[engine starts]
-[carlos] there it goes. -[wes] there it goes.
[dustin] turn the engines up higher, all the way!
[narrator] at the chute,
Dustin and his crew are back in the game.
With the end of the season looming,
They need to get to the bottom of the plunge pool
An add to their gold count.
[dustin] so, we're flooded out really, really bad.
Uh, broke our dredge.
Put it back together.
It looks like it's gonna work
And we're about to give it a go.
Going for that hard push.
We know it's freezing.
It's frozen on top, for sure.
It's cold enough down here.
I feel like it's freezing down here. This is our last shot.
We need to dig this out
Or get out of here.
That's it.
[carlos] man, it's starting to get cold, dude.
Cold.
[narrator] with the white water raging through the chute,
Dustin taps in his youngest and fittest diver, james,
For the battle to reach bedrock.
We gotta get busy now.
I'm about to go in there and tear it up.
It's all about willpower.
How much do you want the gold?
This is what we have to deal with.
-[dustin] ready for this? -Yeah.
[dustin] you got a rough ride, man.
It's gonna be cold and rough.
[james] it's gonna be pretty bad.
All right, face that way. Gonna load you up.
[carlos] good. Tight.
Well, with any luck, you make it down to the bottom, man.
Just take as much as you can get out of it.
[james] the water looks crazy.
All right, here we go.
Locked on, everything good.
All clear. Let's go.
How you feeling, man?
[james] terrified.
[dustin] so, I'm guessing
You're gonna try to get on that other side first, right?
[james] yeah. Try to get out of that white water.
-Yeah. Do not get tangled up in that white hose. -All right.
I think we're good to go.
Carlos, you got him?
But I wouldn't jump in that water hard.
I'd go into it as soft as you can.
Here we go.
[james grunts]
[dustin] yep. He's going down. All right. Carlos has you.
Keep going forward.
-[james exclaims] -yeah. Yeah.
Now that's... Is that gravel or is that bedrock?
[james] that is all gravel.
[narrator] over the last month,
They've dug 13 feet down into the plunge pool,
But every time a storm creates a raging torrent,
It carries down rocks from upstream.
[james] I think it is filled in around four feet.
But it's just kitty litter.
Uh, it should dredge up pretty quick.
[narrator] the flood has filled their 13-foot plunge pool
With four feet of rocks and gravel.
James must dredge down through this material
To get to the gold on bedrock.
[james] okay.
-All right, I'm dredging now. -All right.
I'm hoping it's all just little bitty rock,
We call it kitty litter.
And, uh...
Hopefully he can get us back to where we were.
So we need to know what's at the bottom of this thing.
Uh, the chute is
A mysterious anomaly
In this creek that we never saw coming,
And there could be a huge payoff in the bottom.
All of our hopes lie on,
Is there gold at the bottom of this hole?
[james] awesome. [laughs]
I'm just getting rid of all this kitty litter.
I've got good, good suction.
Everything's going good right now.
James' having a good dive
And he's moving a lot of material.
[james] oh, that's why I'm cold.
Are you saying you're cold?
No, I just noticed I didn't get taped up on my right
Very well, so I think that's why.
[dustin] oh, that's carlos' problem. He did [bleep].
He's pretty bad at taping.
[narrator] james' diving glove
Is letting in freezing water.
Exposure to water at a temperature of 35 degrees
Can lead to hypothermia in minutes.
-[dustin] you want more tape on your right side? -[james] yeah.
[dustin] okay, come up, man.
[indistinct shouting]
-[dustin] [bleep] james! -[james] [bleep]
[carlos shouting indistinctly]
-[carlos] james! -[dustin] pull him up, pull him up.
[james breathing]
[dustin] coming up to you.
-[james groans] -[dustin] just stand there for a second.
-[dustin] don't let him go though. -[carlos] no, no.
[dustin] if he falls, I don't want him shooting down that [bleep] line.
Ready to come up?
[james] uh, not yet.
[dustin] carlos, you wanna learn how to do this right?
[carlos laughs]
[james] it is cold.
[dustin] all right, put your hand over it when you go in the water.
This is what pulled out.
[james] all right, I need one second.
[dustin] uh-huh. No, no, take your time, man.
Just don't get wrapped up in the other umbilical down there.
[james] wow, that water is pretty cold.
[dustin] yeah, bad, man.
-[james] but I dug myself a hole so... -[dustin] all right.
[james] rock n' roll. [breathing]
Wow. I'm digging to china.
Well, I'll get it done today for sure.
I swear you can almost see snow.
I don't know what the hell it is.
It just seems like a lot of snow coming.
I don't know. I'm not trying to jinx us or nothing
But you get that taste in the air like it's about to snow.
[wes] it's getting extremely cold up here.
[carlos] it's cold as hell up here, dude.
[dustin] how's your temperature, man?
[james] it's just chilly, man. Really cold.
[james grunting]
[dustin] what's the matter? Are you starting to shiver?
[james exclaims in pain]
[groans] it hurts.
[dustin] see if you can push past it, man. Just focus, get your breathing.
It hurts like hell.
[james] I'm getting a lot water.
-[dustin] okay, okay. -[james] I'm [bleep] frozen.
[wes] that's the thing you got to watch out for, is hypothermia.
-[dustin] he's about to freeze to death. -[wes] yep.
[dustin] I want to [bleep] end this. That's what I want.
[james breathing] guys, hey.
-[dustin] what you got, man? -[james] you ain't gonna believe it.
[dustin] what you got?
[james laughs] no way. No way, dude.
We got three big nuggets of gold here.
God, man. Oh, my [bleep]!
[carlos] well, three nuggets.
-[wes] is he serious? -Three nuggets. We're there.
[wes] I knew it, I knew it. [bleep] yeah.
[dustin] all right, well, hopefully, you don't drop 'em
In all this crazy water, man.
-[dustin] that's awesome. -[james laughs]
-Good job, james. -[james] I'm coming up.
[dustin] copy that. Coming up. We're gonna help you up.
[carlos] hell, yeah. Hell, yeah!
[wes] we're back on the gold.
-[all cheering] -[wes] holy [bleep]!
[carlos] woo-hoo, james. Gold hound.
-[dustin] check that out. -[wes] hell, yeah, man.
-[wes] that's nice, man. Yeah. -[dustin] look at that, carlos.
Hey, nugget king of the chute, bro. Nugget king of the chute.
[dustin] this just proves what we got in the chute.
There is gold down there. There is gold, good gold.
How much more? I knew there had to be good pay.
[wes] there's got to be a [bleep] ton more.
I love knowing there's gold down there.
-[chuckles] we're on the gold. -[bleep] yeah, buddy.
-Good job. -[james laughs]
[carlos] great frickin' day.
There was a time that everybody wanted to go home.
Broken dredge, crazy water, we thought that was it.
Look at us now. Gold.
He found gold near the bottom.
Three big nuggets all together.
We're back in the gold.
It's gonna be a hell of a struggle to dig this thing out.
But we're gonna try like hell.
[james] we got gold waiting for us. Let's get after it.
We're so [bleep] close now.
-A pile of gold waiting for us. -[dustin] I'll bet there is.
-We are getting close. -Big nuggets.
[narrator] working on borrowed time,
Dustin is in a race against winter,
Scrambling for one last big payday at the chute,
To add to their record season.
[dustin] hey, man, take a look at that damn waterfall.
I don't think you're gonna see it like that again.
It must be raining like hell up at the top.
We got to finish this. See how much we can take.
-[carlos] woo-hoo, look at all that snow. -[james] yeah.
-[carlos] damn. -[dustin] pretty serious.
[carlos] dang [bleep] dang. Holy [bleep]!
Holy crap.
[james] I can't believe that's still sitting there.
-[james] holy. -[carlos] oh, man.
[narrator] for the second time this week,
A winter storm has turned the creek into a raging torrent.
[wes] where do y'all think the superclaw is?
[dustin] where was it connected?
[wes] I don't know where the superclaw was, but you know what?
-I bet that [bleep] is gone. -[dustin] oh [bleep] it's gone.
[narrator] the force of the water has swept away
Wes' custom-made superclaw.
[wes] there's no telling where it went.
[dustin] all right, let's talk bigger picture.
We know the dredge is not gonna sit right.
-[carlos] no. -[dustin] it won't work.
I've racked my brain.
I cannot make this work with this dredge in this spot.
[narrator] the raging whitewater threatens
To rip their dredge to pieces at any moment.
It's either get this thing ready, or go home.
Right now, that's our only two choices.
I vote to stay here and try this because I don't want to have to go all winter-long
Thinking, what the [bleep] is in the bottom of that hole?
I want to dive that chute. I'd love to see what's in that chute.
[wes] what are you thinking?
So, the only thing I can figure out is,
If we lengthen the big suction hose,
And put the dredge way back here
Way back in the nugget bowl,
And just see if we can run it like that.
I know it's a bunch of work.
Anybody got any better ideas?
[wes] no, I like that idea.
We'll probably be more likely to keep our dredge alive if we do that.
It can be a lot of damn work but...
All right, I think we can do this.
-[wes] I think so. -We can dive in that.
-The problem is the dredge right now. -[wes] yeah.
So let's take the dredge out of that hard water
And put it back here and try to extend it.
-All right, we got a solid plan. -[wes] I think so.
Operation move dredge back downstream, lengthen hoses.
This will be a bunch of work, man.
[carlos] where the dredge is right now, it just won't work.
We can dive this, we can dive it.
We're not scared of not diving it.
We can dive this, but the dredge has to be working 100%.
James, can you hop up there and click on that thing?
Pick it up as much as you think you can.
[narrator] first, dustin's crew must attach the one-ton dredge
To a pulley on the skyline using a come-along,
Raise it out of the raging water over the bridge...
[dustin] get after it.
[narrator] ...And lower it into the calmer waters.
[dustin] I can deal with that.
-[wes] wow, that looks good. -[dustin] all right, james. I got a job for you, bro.
You stand right here.
You can be able to let this out at a controlled rate.
You are in control of it going that way.
-You understand? -Yeah.
Gonna be a lot of weight.
-So you got to hold this. -[james] I'm ready.
-Gonna be a tough one. -I know.
-[dustin] lift up on that a little bit. -Yeah, I got it, man.
All right. Whatever you're doing, I'm ready.
-[dustin] whatever I'm doing, huh? -[carlos] yeah.
-Don't let it hit you. -Okay.
[dustin] cut it.
[dredge thumping down]
Beautiful. Start letting it out a little bit.
[carlos] up and over.
Don't get run over.
If he slips all of a sudden, where are you going?
If it slips real hard, where you going?
[carlos] one slip here, dude, I'm done for.
[carlos grunts]
-[james] it slipped. -[carlos] what?
[dredge creaks]
[carlos groans] there's slack holding it down.
-I see it. -[carlos] oh, right here, dude.
[wes] just a minor rope problem.
[narrator] they forgot to release the anchor line
That prevents the dredge from floating downstream,
And over mckinley falls.
[wes] right, that could be our whole issue right there.
That's it. Yeah.
Woo-hoo.
[carlos] all right, let's do this. Up and over.
Got to be easier ways to make a living.
[all laughing]
[whoops]
[dustin] watch out.
-[carlos chuckles nervously] -carlos, where you gonna go? You gonna ride it?
[carlos] trying to make a counter-balance, is all.
There it is, there it is.
Woo-hoo. It's done!
That's it. That's enough. Tie it off, please.
[dustin] it's gonna take a long time to get it down
-Because we're using this. -[wes] hey, absolutely.
[narrator] all that's left is for dustin to release the come-along
And lower the dredge into the water.
[wes] put her over there and we're good.
Carlos, you're gonna have to pull from there, and walk it over.
[dustin] let go, let go, let go.
Hey, I want to get off of this thing before he takes it, so.
[wes] plug it in.
[all yelling]
[bleep] I can't hold it.
[carlos] [bleep] ah! [bleep]
[dustin] yeah, I want to get off of this thing before he takes it, so.
[narrator] in the raging rapids,
Just 120 yards above mckinley falls,
The fate of dustin's season hangs by a thread.
[wes] plug it in.
[all yelling]
[carlos] [bleep] I can't hold it! [bleep]
Ah! [bleep]
-[wes] pull him in, man. -[carlos grunting]
[carlos grunting]
Yeah, I'm good.
[carlos] come on, get a hold of this.
[wes] get it over there, tied, and we'll let it go. It'll go that side.
[dustin] tie it, tie it off.
-[carlos grunting] [bleep] -[dustin] go that way.
-[carlos] all right. -[dustin] get across.
Walk across!
[carlos] [bleep] I don't know. Where to tie it off to.
[dustin] tie it off some [bleep] where.
[carlos] I got it, I got it. [grunts] there you go.
All right, all right. Cut it, cut it off.
[dustin] let go, let go. [bleep] let go.
[wes] [bleep] cable broke. The [bleep] cable broke.
Dustin, you all right? You all right?
[carlos] I thought I was going in for a swim, man.
[wes] luckily, I had that green rope, too.
I may be old but when I need to, I got some strength.
[carlos] true, if he wasn't there, dude,
I couldn't hold that thing myself.
[james] [bleep] dude. That was some sketchy [bleep].
[carlos] let's take a breather, dude.
[dustin] [bleep] need it.
[carlos whoops]
-That the rib? -Yeah, just a rib hit.
-[carlos] holy-moly, man. -[dustin] I need to take a sit down.
[dustin] it just popped loose, and put me in some raging whitewater
That knocked the wind out of me,
And the guys almost lost me and the dredge
Over the top of this waterfall,
Which would have been the death of me, for sure.
[carlos] did that just happen? Did all that just happen?
Are we still alive? Am I dead?
-I thought we [bleep] lost-- -[wes] [bleep] good job. We saved dustin.
[james] we saved dustin big-time [bleep].
[wes] it took off like a rocket, man. Flipped him over forward.
-We need to go check and see. I know I hit his ribs. -[carlos] yeah, yeah.
[wes sighs with relief]
-[wes laughing] -[james] god, now I can feel that, buddy.
-[wes] sorry about that, man. [bleep] -[carlos laughs]
You just saved my [bleep] life today.
-[carlos] I can't stop laughing, man. [bleep] -[dustin] holy [bleep].
You just saved my life, man.
[wes] I couldn't let go of that for nothing, man.
[dustin] oh, my [bleep]. All I could think was,
"this is gonna be the worst ride I've ever taken.
It's gonna be the shortest ride I've ever taken, too."
-[carlos laughs] -[dustin] holy [bleep].
[dustin] I'm gonna feel this later. [laughs]
-[wes] oh, man. -[dustin] oh, man.
[dustin] [bleep] you guys just saved my life, man.
[carlos] [bleep] yeah, we were just scared as [bleep].
Man, I can't stop laughing though.
-[dustin sighs] -I can't believe that happened.
-[dustin] that was a bunch. -[wes] I know.
[wes] guys, tonight our hands are gonna be like...
All I could think... I looked up and saw it zinging through your hands,
And you yelling, "I can't hold it."
I was like, "this is gonna be the wildest ride I ever took, man."
-That thing just zipped down, like... -[dustin laughs]
"no way that just happened, man. I can't hold it."
[dustin] that was pure adrenaline.
[wes] yeah, adrenaline kicks in and you can do [bleep] that you don't think you can do.
Unhuman. [bleep]
I mean, dustin's weight, the weight of the dredge.
Dude, there ain't no telling how many thousands of pounds force
That we just held back.
-[bleep] where we could normally could not do that. -[dustin] oh, man.
[dustin] thank you, guys, for saving my life. How about that?
What the hell, man.
Yeah, this place just... [bleep]
[bleep] that was crazy, dude. That was crazy.
That did it for me, man.
I thought you were a goner.
[bleep]
[dustin] too many things going wrong.
The water won't stop coming up.
Just getting dangerous, man. Just getting dangerous.
I think it's just gonna keep hitting us and hitting us
And hitting us for the next two weeks, three weeks.
And to tell you the truth, I think I'm calling the season, man.
I think this is over with.
No, I agree with you, man. Let's not go through that again.
-Let's not do that again, so. -[dustin] let's just not do that again, man.
Let's call it before anything really bad happens here.
Let's go check out the gold that we have, and see what we have.
Do all the processing,
And, uh, let's find out what we did for the season.
-[dustin] we're out of here. -[wes] all right.
What happened to dustin
Kind of shook me up because we could have lost him.
But he's all right.
He's one tough [bleep] that's for sure.
Thank god he's all right. He called it. That's it.
[carlos] enough is enough.
You just can't fight mother nature.
That's just live and fight another day.
This is good gold, but it's not worth anybody's life.
And we came as close today and we ever have
Of losing anybody, which is just absolutely terrifying.
It'll be there next year, and we'll get down to it.
But we're tapped out for this year.
It's done.
Now I need to find out how much gold we got out of it.
[dustin] james, I need you to fire up the trommel.
-[carlos] you know how to run this setup, james? -[james] yeah.
Let's run the rest of our concentrates and find out how much gold we have.
[narrator] at mckinley camp,
James hamm is cleaning up the last of the season's gold
After wes richardson was called home to texas
For a family emergency.
This should be, uh, the last bit of concentrate
That we're running at the end of the season here, and we'll see what we got.
That was something.
There it is.
[dustin] that is some good-looking gold, man.
Let's, uh, get it out of the sluice box, dry it out.
And, uh, let's find out what our total weight is.
[narrator] back in April, the pandemic
Put their whole gold-mining season in doubt.
Now, six months later, dustin's crew is about to discover
If they have beaten last season's gold total of 33.6 ounces,
And had their best year ever.
[dustin] we made it through the season.
Got into the chute, even though I didn't want to dig there.
It turned into something beautiful.
And then it turned into a nightmare.
Dropped the damn dredge, almost lost my life.
You guys saved my life.
Almost went over the damn 50-foot waterfall.
I thought for sure you was taking the fricking boat-ride of your life, man.
-Wes stopped it, man. -[carlos] yeah.
-Wes put the brakes on it... -Yeah.
...And between the two of you, you were able to stop me.
[carlos] you'll be hurting for a couple of weeks.
Yeah, but this, uh, that's what we had in the nugget bowl.
-[james] oh, my [bleep] -[carlos] [bleep] heavy.
Oh, my [bleep].
That's 29 and a half ounces.
I mean, you could do curls with that. That's heavy.
[dustin] so there's 29 and a half in there,
And I actually haven't weighed out what we got out of the chute yet.
But that's it right there.
[james] that's from the chute. Holy smokes.
But what would be your guess, man?
[james] four and a half?
-I think that's about seven ounces, dude. -[dustin] that much?
I think so.
Well...
-I tell you, that's three. -[carlos] that's four.
-That's four, right there. Way off. -[carlos] that's four, man.
[carlos] six. Holy crap, I'm way off.
Seven. It's still going up, dude.
-[dustin] nine. -[carlos] nine.
-Ten. [laughs] oh, my [bleep]! -[carlos laughs]
-Twelve ounces, dude. -[james] twelve?
[carlos] twelve ounces.
-[dustin] twelve ounces we got out of that. -[james] wow.
So we got 12 ounces out of that chute.
I didn't think, I thought it would be over in two days, and I was wrong.
I'm glad you guys convinced me to dig the damn thing.
Twelve ounces, and I'm happy with that.
[carlos] that puts us over 40 ounces, man.
We're doing better every, every season.
[dustin] forty one and a half ounces for the season.
That's not counting the nuggets.
That's over $80,000.
[narrator] forty one point seven ounces,
And with a premium paid for jewelry-grade nuggets,
This pile of gold is worth over $100,000.
In a year that could have been a disaster,
Dustin and his crew have produced a record gold haul.
[dustin] I was worried that it had all been mined out.
That's not the case.
We know there's stuff in my claims.
Now we can move bigger boulders.
It opens up bigger windows.
I can't wait to dig more of this stuff
Because I know we're gonna find more of this.
And after everything that's happened in this season, man,
Pandemic, [bleep] thing, uh, late start,
I mean, we pushed it to the end.
Well, we know we picked the right spot, we just...
Mother nature stopped us before we could double this, I bet, at least.
-[carlos] I think so. -[james] I think so, too.
Another successful season during the worst year ever.
We still have not hit bedrock.
So you can imagine, twelve ounces from top. What's in the bottom?
I'm happy these guys stuck with me.
I'm proud of every one of 'em. They saved me.
It's as real as it gets right there.
I'll be grateful forever on that one.
I can't wait to get back next year and find out
What's at the bottom of that chute.
It is the perfect gold catch.
We're getting it. This is happening for us.