[narrator] Deep in Alaska's remote Chilkat Mountains.
[Kayla] Should be a good day.
You want me to tape that?
[narrator] New crew boss Kayla,
is going all in on their hunt for gold.
[Scott] Come on, let's go.
[Mark] Man, it does work.
[Kayla] In order for this season to pay off,
we need to move way more material.
And, the only solution to that problem I see right now
is to run two dredges.
[narrator] Sending two divers 12 feet down,
in one hole, doubling their risk.
Alright, alright, alright.
See if we can find some gold.
[narrator] In a dangerous, last-ditch effort,
to reach bedrock,
before seasons end.
[Kayla] With Tim and Scott both in the water, we'll get a lot moved today.
It'll be a bigger workload, but I think all of us can handle it.
[Mark] Alright, so what are you thinking here, how do you wanna do it?
Well, we'll do it.
[Mark] This is crazy. It's insane.
[Scott] You're clear, I'm watching your back.
Let go of that.
- [Kayla] All clear? - [Scott] All clear.
[Kayla] Alright, going up.
[Mark] Alright, there now, set it down slowly.
That's good.
- [rocks rumbling] - [Kayla] Whoa, whoa, watch out.
- [Kayla] Whoa, whoa. - [Mark] Run, run, run!
-Get up here, guys! Get up here! -[Kayla] Go, go, go!
Get down there and get it.
There's a lot of things that can go wrong. A lot of things.
[Carlos] Don't get hurt, don't die.
[Paul] He just pulled his mask off, what the [bleep]?
[Scott] Two dredge, [bleep] yeah.
[Dustin] Tell the other crew we got a dredge.
Mother nature built the perfect sluice spots.
- That is some rich ground, some very rich ground. - [Kayla] Pickers all over.
That's a good little pile right there.
- [Dustin] Welcome back. - [Paul] Thank you.
[narrator] More than halfway through the season
and now spread thin across two dive sites,
Dustin finally has an ace up his sleeve.
[Dustin] This project is not [bleep] for everybody.
[Paul] Well, I'm glad to be back. This is like old times again, man.
[James] Is that Paul Richardson?
[Carlos] You gotta be kiddin' me.
Look at you, dude. You look good man. Dude, how much I love you, man.
[bleep] I miss you so much.
-How's it goin', man? Been a while. -[Paul] [bleep] yeah.
We're glad you're [bleep] here, we need the [bleep] help good.
I mean, we need a lot of help.
[narrator] Three weeks ago after an argument with Scott...
[Scott] You just shut the [bleep] up and do what you're told.
[Eric] You know what?
[bleep]
[narrator] Eric walked out,
leaving Kayla's crew a man down.
[Dustin] I'm already in the works of trying to get somebody else.
You guys need a four-person crew, it's a safety hazard.
[narrator] Since 2013, Paul Richardson had been Dustin's wingman.
If you can get down there and clean this out, we gonna get paid.
- Okay. - [narrator] He has four years of experience
in the deadly waters around McKinley Creek.
[Mark] We're counting on you today, Paul.
Hell, yeah.
Where did I lie to you? Explain it.
[narrator] But after falling out with Dustin...
-I'm not. -You guys basically [bleep] lied to me.
[narrator] ...he didn't return at the start of the season.
[Dustin] Me and Paul had some, uh, problems.
So, I'm trying to squash the beef with all the stuff we had goin' on.
Well, we can get back to, uh,
- you being you again, and, uh, I'll be me again. - Not a problem.
[Carlos] You came home, man. You came back home, man.
Dude, this season picked up
way better bro.
[Dustin] Paul this is Kayla.
- [Kayla] Hey. - [Paul] Kayla.
- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
I'm glad to be back.
Kayla's gonna be runnin' your side and
she has all the power I have.
She's proven herself quite a few times and she's
tough and
that's what we need over there and
Paul Richardson, he's Wes' brother.
[Wes] He got a bit more skills though, pretty sure.
[Scott] And you're fresh.
They energy went out, didn't it?
[Dustin] That's another thing I'm hoping for.
That's what I'm hoping for as well,
that some of that energy rubs off on everybody else,
- because you know how it feels to be here for a whole season. - [Paul] Oh, [bleep] yeah.
[Dustin] He's a really good worker and, uh,
I think he would be a great addition to you team.
[Paul] I know the creek, I know what to expect.
You know I'm ready to get some gold.
[Kayla] Nice, well, that's really good news.
'Cause, this late in the season, like,
we don't have the time to start over training someone.
- No. - [Kayla] And
having someone else experienced is just going to make us stronger.
[Scott] Yeah.
- [Dustin] Welcome back to the crew, man. - [Paul] Appreciate it.
- [Dustin] And, uh, we gonna have some fun here. - [Carlos] Yeah, man.
- Let's get some work done, let's find some gold. - [Paul] Let's get some gold.
- [Scott] Yeah. - [Paul] It's what it's about.
[Dustin] And we'll have some fun too.
[Paul] I love this group of guys, I mean,
there was a couple years that,
yeah, we had a little bit of differences, but,
we've worked through that and
now we're back to one big family again.
Now, I feel better with Paul there.
And, uh,
his presence is gonna help them get down to the gold because
of all the things he can fix and the extra help.
[narrator] With their crew back to full strength,
Kayla sees an opportunity.
[Kayla] In order to make this season pay off,
we need to move way more material.
Um, and the only
solution to that problem I see
right now is to run two dredges at a time.
Um, that's gonna get us to bedrock faster
and hopefully get us way more gold than what we're seeing right now.
[Kayla] I'll talk to Dustin and see what he says
about letting' us using the second dredge.
- [Kayla] Hey, guys. - [Dustin] Hey, how's it goin'?
[Kayla] In all honesty, we're way behind
in how much gold we should have.
So I was wondering if it would be an option
for you to leave the big dredge behind because I think
between the four of us, we'd be able to operate two dredges.
[narrator] Last week,
Dustin gave up on House Rock...
[Dustin] I don't wanna waste any more time digging here.
[narrator] ...to focus all their attention on the Chute.
[Dustin] This is what we've been thinking about all weather long.
[narrator] A place they've already proven has gold.
I need to know what's at the bottom of that hole right there.
Both dredges, huh?
[Kayla] Yeah, it's gettiin'
late in the season and
since we're already on gold,
to make it pay off real big right now,
we need to get to bedrock faster
and I think if we have two dredges going,
two people diving and two people up top at all times,
then we can move way more material.
That's four people to two dredges
and it can be done,
but that's not easy.
- No, man, it's not easy, man. - [James] Hard rotation.
- [Kayla] Yeah, just... - [Dustin] No.
You guys are gonna be running in circles.
You think [bleep] fixing a winch right now is hard.
[Kayla] I think my crew would be able to handle it
with two dredges.
I mean, I see your point about wanting two dredges there, but,
if we leave them both dredges, what're we gonna do for a dredge?
I've got a junkyard full of old parts and pieces
and I may be able to put together a dredge.
Junkyard dredge.
Hm.
[Wes] I think I can make that happen.
If not, you're gonna be stuck with one dredge.
- Sounds good, thanks. - [Wes] Yeah.
[Kayla] So, hopefully we can have two divers in the water today.
And we'll get it cleaned out a lot faster.
[Paul] Water's nice and low. Golly.
[Scott] Yeah. I like this area.
[narrator] At House Rock, for the last month
Kayla's original three-man crew has been on
a gold pay streak.
[Scott] This looks like a really good spot.
So our hole goes from right up here
- all the way to where that line is right there. - [Scott] Yeah.
[Kayla] And all the way to the current.
[narrator] In a bid to get to bedrock gold
before season's end,
Kayla will now attempt to run two dredges,
with just four people.
It's a little bit challenging running two dredges, uh,
in an ideal situation, yeah, we would have a tender for each dredge.
[narrator] To keep the operation running, and the two divers alive,
the two crew on the surface must
run comms to the diver, operate winches,
unload baskets, clear tailing,
ensure the four gas tanks remain fueled,
and monitor the air compressors
that supply vital air to the diver.
Failure to keep up could cost a diver their life.
I can't see us running two dredges.
Two people teams,
that might be a little,
little crazy.
But you gotta be a little crazy to get into this.
I hope everything she decides is the right decisions.
All I can do is give suggestions.
So far,
the only person I've worked with o this team is Scott, so,
working with Kayla, and working with Stamper
is gonna be a whole new experience for me. I don't know.
I don't know how they work, I know they're both experienced dredgers, um,
it's just getting used to everybody.
[narrator] But in Alaska,
the learning curve is steep.
And mistakes can cost lives.
[Scott] It's official guys, the dredge is ours.
Now for the big question, who's diving when?
[Kayla] Well, I'm diving today, um,
if we can get to where both dredges are running,
then Stamper will be diving with me as well.
So, what's the game plan with the comms?
[Kayla] We gotta work on getting a comm cable across the creek
so, that way, we can link
both divers together and we can all use the same comms system.
[narrator] They can't tandem dive without
upgrading the vital comms system
to connect the two divers to each other
and the tenders.
[Mark] Cut the end off, wire 'em all back together,
pull it straight across and plug it in.
So, we can have two dredges operating at one time.
My science teacher would have been proud of that one.
Look at that, perfect.
[Scott] Alright, start it up.
We'll get both dredges going,
I got a feeling it's gonna be really good.
We're gonna blast through material at a speed that's unbelievable.
[Scott] There you go.
[Kayla] I'm glad Paul came and, uh, joined our team,
we really needed a fourth person in order to be able to run two divers at a time.
[Scott] Double production, double the gold.
Two dredge, [bleep] yeah.
[narrator] So far, with just one dredge,
they've dug a hole 12 feet deep
and hope they're already halfway down
to the massive payday on bedrock.
[Kayla] Ready to go again?
[Scott] You're clear to go.
[Kayla] Their side went off too?
- [Scott] They are cleared. - [Kayla] Okay.
[Scott] Clear, good job.
[Kayla] Whoa, this is really not good.
[Paul] What is it?
[Kayla] Oh, our hole's [bleep] filled in.
What the [bleep]?
- [Scott] What is it? - [Kayla] Oh, our hole's [bleep] filled in.
What the [bleep]?
[narrator] At House Rock,
Kayla's crew has just been dealt a massive blow.
[Kayla] I'm standing.
Where I'm at right now, was 12 feet,
and now we're only at five.
[narrator] Last week...
Yeah, that water's comin' way up.
[narrator] ...a violent flood raged through McKinley Creek.
[Kayla] Diver up, diver up.
[narrator] Causing the miners to evacuate.
[Kayla] We need to get the [bleep] outta here.
This is not divable water right now.
[narrator] Abandoning their gear in 12 foot deep gold stream.
[Scott] Think let's just leave it.
[Mark] Yeah, we gotta get outta here man, this is crazy.
[Kayla] That kinda sucks because we were on a roll finding chunky gold
the past few days and now we're gonna have to start all over.
[Paul] Oh, that's not good.
[Mark] Man, McKinley Creek strikes again.
[narrator] To get back on the pay streak,
Kayla's four-man crew must successfully run two dredges
if they are to move 7 feet of fill-in in a matter of days.
[Scott] So, we got just loose material that we just blast through,
dredge through real fast right there.
[Paul] So, the majority of it should be loose
and we have to dredge that stuff all out.
[Kayla] Yeah, we can definitely do it, it'll be a bigger workload.
But, I think if we're gonna run both dredges,
all of us can handle it.
[Mark] I know we can.
[James] Come on, let's go.
[narrator] At Porcupine,
Dustin and James are on a mission
to build a third dredge
and further expand the operation.
[Dustin] This is where I keep all my spare parts.
Anything smashed, bonked, broken.
Gonna try to take some of this stuff and put a dredge together.
[narrator] To build a dredge from junkyard parts,
they'll need motors, air compressors,
sluice box, hose, floats,
and heaters. It needs to be small enough to fit in the narrow Chute,
but powerful enough to supply a diver with vital air and hot water
and suction to get down to bedrock gold.
Things we have to do to get gold.
- [James] Here's a sluice box. - [Dustin] That's a sluice box right there, he could probably
set it up, right?
- [James] Yeah, and a jet log. - [Dustin] Wanna bring both of these up--
- [James] Look at that. - [Dustin] Which one is the best one, then?
- Obvious it's smashed, look at it. - [James] Yeah.
So, let's both of these and he can decide,
since he might get upset, you know.
[James] Oh, suction hose.
Like a damn Slinky.
Desperate times, desperate measures.
We need to
put together a dredge
ASAP.
And we'll go divin' and we're gonna find some gold
for me to clean that Chute out.
Ready?
[James] Let's get outta here.
[narrator] If Dustin can't build a dredge out of these scavenged parts,
Kayla's dream of double dredging
will be short lived.
[Dustin] Almost everything.
Missing one jet log.
Do we have a jet log up here?
[Wes] Yeah, we do. We got it up here.
- [Dustin] Well, there she is. - [Wes] Yeah.
- [Dustin] So, we got a full dredge now? - [Wes] Yep.
Need a gasket here.
[Wes] This'll work fine because it goes to the other hose.
And I think I can get this dredge together pretty fast.
I mean, we've got-- we've run out of time already, so,
it's uh, it's not make-it-look-pretty-dredge this time, it's just the
"Slap it together as fast as I can."
As long as we can get it in and get to dredging and get after this gold,
that's the main thing right now.
[Dustin] That's a full.
No?
What am I looking at wrong?
- Am I missing a metal piece? - [Wes] No.
[Dustin] I just did that. Just did that.
[Wes] Well, that fits right in there.
- [Dustin] That's how that goes. - [Wes] Yeah.
[Dustin] Okay.
[Dustin] I'm scrounging just to get this going.
I'm trying to optimize everything. I think,
gonna get all three dredges runnin',
two dredges with Kayla,
and I get some crappy dredge
put together for us,
get into the Chute,
find gold.
[Dustin] See this? This is smashed.
So, let's put something on it to keep it together, alright?
The only hose we got with holes in it.
And this is
straight from the junkyard.
- [Carlos] Nah. - [James] Yeah.
[Carlos] This Chute has to pay off.
Seriously.
Mother Nature herself built the perfect sluice box.
So.
[James scoffs]
But there's--
God, I hope there's gold in there.
There's gold in there, brother.
I guarantee you, man, we're gonna do it.
We'll find a record breaking nugget, man. Talking about
morning interviews nugget find, you know?
It's there, man.
It's there.
[James] All taped up.
You'd be surprised what tape does.
The whole problem I'm having with this dredge is, I'm gonna get out there,
put everything together and find out what's really wrong with it.
Will the engine run?
Will...
the hot water heaters work?
Will the floats float?
Everything needs to do its job but they've already been beaten to death by us.
[narrator] They'll have to send the junkyard dredge
piece by piece down an old haul line.
Until they get it assembled and in the water,
they have no way of knowing if it will run.
[Dustin] Well, I don't have any damn gold and I need to find some.
And the Chute has gold in it.
Just needed to get this
mixed together, piece of junk dredge
over there and I need it to get me gold.
[narrator] Up creek at House Rock.
[Scott] But I think we can get it done.
[Kayla] Yeah, I think we can handle it.
[narrator] After a storm dumped 7 feet of gravel into their dive hole,
Kayla's crew is on a rescue mission to save their season.
[Mark] We got this.
[narrator] And the return of Paul Richardson
couldn't have come
at a better time.
[Kayla] Running two dredges, that's exactly what we needed.
We're moving this [bleep] material already.
So, just for comparison, see my fingertips?
[Scott] Holy [bleep]!
-[Paul] Holy [bleep]! Yeah, barely. -[Kayla] I'm standing.
I'm standing with my arms fully extended.
That's how much [bleep] stuff is here.
[Paul] And you were like at your chest level before.
[Kayla] Exactly. [bleep]
[Paul] So that's,
that's at least 3 foot of material out of there already.
[Mark] That a lot of overburden. I didn't realize it was this much.
[Kayla] Hey do you see where the basket is?
[Scott] Stamper, can you hear Kayla?
Stamper do you copy?
[narrator] The double dredging
is making short work of clearing the in-fill.
But the vital comms system
that Stamper rigged is failing.
[Paul] I can hear him breathing'.
- [Kayla] Yeah, I can too. - [Paul] Yeah.
[Kayla] Hey, Stamper.
[Paul] Mark, you gotta copy.
[Mark] Can anybody hear me? I can't hear [bleep].
Stamper, can you hear me?
That's not cool.
We are gonna have to get that worked out.
Absolutely. Gotta figure out why the [bleep]
he can't hear us as soon as he goes in the water.
[Kayla] Yeah.
Well,
if we can't communicate, he's gotta get out.
Hang on, I'll find him.
Stamper, I'm right behind you.
[Mark] Ah! [bleep]
That's my foot.
[Scott] Any luck?
[Kayla] Hang on, I'm trying to get Stamper.
[Mark] Okay.
[Kayla] So, go that way.
- [Mark] This way? - [Kayla] That way.
You gotta go that way and take the hose.
[Mark] Yeah.
Alright.
- [Kayla] Go that way, go. - [Mark] I don't know
what the [bleep] anybody's saying.
[Kayla] Go.
[Scott] He's going the wrong way.
[Kayla] Oh, no, I'm trying to tell him.
[Scott] He just pulled his mask off, what the [bleep]?
[Paul] Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's goin' on?
[bleep]
I will never deal with that [bleep] again.
[Scott] Oh, [bleep] great. Here we go.
[narrator] Diver, Mark Stamper
has abandoned his dive after a comms failure.
Hold on, slow down, slow down.
[Mark] I can't hear anything.
[Kayla] What's goin' on?
[Scott] I think he's getting frustrated about the fact that he can't communicate.
[Paul] You good?
Good deal.
[Mark] Go ahead and do what you gotta do.
[Paul] Okay.
[Kayla] Open it up.
[Scott] Alright, Kayla, I am opening the dredge back up.
[narrator] Stamper's comms problem
means Kayla's crew is back to just one dredge
and one diver.
[Mark] I had communications in and out, in and out.
They're yelling, asking me stuff.
She came over, she patted me
on my shoulder or somethin', and I was--
I wasn't upset, I was just
being me, cussing, and
that was that.
[Kayla] I mean, it sucks I wanted to keep goin'.
Hopefully we can get that worked out.
Let's just see what we got. Take a look at it.
[narrator] 1,000 feet downstream at the Chute.
Putting the dredge together.
[narrator] Dustin's crew is over halfway through their season
and have found no gold.
[Wes] Another floaty device.
[James] Junkyard dredge.
[narrator] Their future
depends on this pile of salvaged parts
functioning as a gold catching dredge.
Right now, we are in a hurry to get this dredge assembled today,
get it runnin',
we can't waste any more time,
we have to-- we have to get to the bottom of the Chute.
Got a little bit of, uh, construction to do here.
So, the rest of our season is riding on JD here and we gotta get him goin'.
And hopefully everything works right because
pretty sure we left a large amount of gold left in the Chute.
[Dustin] Wes is gonna make
this mixed together, piece of junk dredge
that's gonna last us for the rest of the season hopefully.
I don't care what it looks like, just need it to get me gold.
[Dustin] Grab that end.
- [Wes] Alright. - [Dustin] Let's go.
- [Wes] Got that other end? - [Carlos] I got it.
[James] Got it.
- [Dustin] Alright, y'all got that? - [Carlos] Yeah, I got this.
- [James] Got it. So, that's it? - [Carlos] I got it.
[Dustin] Come on down.
Flatten it out.
Here you go, James.
And one for Carlos.
- [Carlos] Yeah. - [Dustin] Grab that?
- [Carlos] Got it. - [Dustin] Thank you.
Got it, got it, got it.
[Dustin] Up.
Alright, together, everyone.
- Don't hurry it up. - [James] Okay, got it.
[Dustin] Hold on, hold on, that side's jamming somehow.
[Wes] Did anybody ever bring that mallet?
[Dustin] Junkyard dredge in full effect,
we about to find out if it works.
[Dustin] Trying to give the other crew as much advantage as I can.
Without two dredges they won't finish for the season.
But I have to have a dredge because I can't go another season,
without knowing what's in the bottom of this Chute.
If I gotta go take one of my dredges from them, I will.
[Kayla over radio] Working now?
[Paul] So, there could be a lose connection, right in there.
[Kayla] You just gotta figure out at this point what the [bleep] problem is.
[narrator] Kayla's dream of running two dredges is over,
unless Paul Richardson, can repair the vital comms system.
[Paul] That could be the problem right there.
So, splicing them together, we [bleep] those wires up.
If the diver can't hear the tender,
it's no good because if they get into a situation, and we call for diver up,
and they don't hear us, it could get really bad really quick.
That box has two outputs, we could have just run from there.
Over to here to run the second diver. So, we have diver one and diver two.
So, this should take care of that problem.
[narrator] Thanks to their newest crew member,
it's now safe to run two drivers side by side.
[Scott over radio] Diver two, back in the water.
Maybe they will last longer than a half hour.
There's the hose.
- [Scott] Yeah. - [Mark] Alright.
[breathing through mask]
Alright. Comm check Stamper, you hear me?
[Mark] Yes. I can hear you.
Alright. That's fine.
- [Mark] Can you hear me? - [Scott] Yes, we can hear you.
If we can't hear you, we're gonna yank out don't worry about that.
[Mark laughs]
[Kayla] Stamper, focus on that side of the hole and I'll do from here over.
[Mark] I know. Alright.
Is there any material coming out of the dredge?
Yeah, there's material coming out.
[Mark] Nice little hole to work out of here.
[Kayla] I have some good news for you, Scott.
-[Scott] Go. -[Kayla] I got a [bleep] crater on this side.
- [Mark] [bleep] Yeah. - That's what I wanna hear.
Guys it looks like a dredge again.
[narrator] After a day building a dredge, made of parts from a junkyard,
it's the moment of truth.
The only thing the dredge has to provide is air,
hot water and the means to pick up gold.
That's it. That is it.
Alright! Let's crank it up. Let's see if it works.
I'm excited. Are you?
Yeah, we're gonna bring JD from sitting out in the junkyard
to back to making money.
Gotta choke the hell out of it, man.
[Carlos] Gas on, choke.
Yeah, let's choke.
[Dustin] They were empty. They were very empty.
[engine struggles]
[Carlos] We're almost there, gents. We're almost freaking there.
[Dustin] Come on.
- Come on, baby! - You can do it.
There it goes.
[Dustin] There it is.
- Wow, dude. - Come on.
Woo-wee!
There it goes.
This thing really wants to work, guys. Look at that water flow.
- [Carlos] That's a lot of water, dude. - [all cheering]
I guess we could tell the other crew, we got a dredge.
[Wes] Yeah. Hell, yeah. JD is gonna find us some gold.
[Dustin] You guys did great today. They got the dredge ready to go.
Now, all I need is a diver in the water.
[narrator] At House Rock, Kayla's four men crew is five hours
into their first tandem dredge dive.
- [Scott] Can you hear me? - [both] Yes.
I'm looking at gold. There are rocks, people.
Boom!
[bleep] yeah.
[singing in joy]
You've got a bottle to put it in?
[Paul] Yeah, get a load of this stuff.
- [Mark] That's a nice one, isn't it? - Yeah, it is, nice picker.
[Paul] Oh, we've never got gold on the first of the mine site,
but these guys have been busting ass.
They're definitely on top of it.
Any time they get gold's not a [bleep] day.
[narrator] The gold is a sign they're already through the fill in,
and back to new rich ground.
- [Kayla] It's back down to where it was. - [Mark laughs]
[Kayla] Yeah. It's like back to where we left off. It's a 100 percent gold.
[mouthing] Yes.
[Scott] That's [bleep] great, dude.
- [Paul] Go ahead and come on out. - [Kayla] Alright.
[Kayla] I'm coming. I'm coming.
We need to check the sluice.
There might be a piece right there.
Yeah, there is gold in it.
That's gold right there.
Yeah baby. [bleep]
There's another piece right there, I see.
[rolling tongue]
Yeah, that's definitely a piece.
- Yeah, that's [bleep]. - Yeah, that's a big piece.
- Whoo! Whoo! - [Kayla] We weren't even expecting to see gold today,
because we were just trying to clean out that flood material.
- [Mark] See that piece right there? - [Paul] Oh, yeah.
Gold feels good.
How's that for a welcome back?
[bleep] yeah.
[narrator] Any gold from this double dredge dive, is a huge bonus.
To the other side!
[narrator] As they spent most of their dive moving the flood infill.
[Kayla] Not seeing pickers.
The main goal today was to open the hole back
to where it was and mission accomplished. We got all that [bleep]
- out there. - [Paul] Hey! That's a victory.
I was thinking, when I first saw it, I was like,
"Oh, it might take two days to clear to it out." But we got it done in one.
-So, that's good. Back on track. -And we got gold.
[Kayla] I just really hope that Dustin will let us keep that dredge over here.
'Cause I feel that's gonna be a game changer.
[Paul] Yeah.
You know for such a bad start, it turned into a really good day.
I mean, anytime we put gold in the box is always a good day so...
I'm thoroughly impressed. This is a good spot.
This crew seems to be pretty good. They're on top of their game.
[narrator] Kayla's crew has successfully pioneered double diving
with just four crew. And are back on the gold.
[Kayla] In the end, it benefits everyone if I got two divers in the water
and move more material. We cleaned out the entire hole.
All the flood debris is out of there. So, now we can have a fresh start tomorrow
and we're right back on track.
[narrator] Up ahead...
I'm a bit nervous to come back to the Chute.
[Dustin] Don't get hurt.
[breathing heavily]
[Scott] Oh, dude. Do you see that [bleep]?
[all shouting] Run run!
[Kayla] Go, go, go...
[Mark] Get out of there!
[Carlos] Today is a dive day.
And let's get to work.
[narrator] Dustin's dream of a million dollar pay day,
now relies on a dredge cobbled together from scraps.
Huge day. Today is our first dive in the Chute for the year.
The rest of the season starts today.
- Alright ready? - Let's go.
Alright. Off you go.
[narrator] He's put his last dollar into his biggest operation yet.
And needs to see a return in gold.
[Dustin] I need the focus up.
Get to dredging, find some gold so we we can pay for this.
We won't be able to come back next year if we don't find enough gold.
[Carlos] Dive day one on the Chute today.
We hope everything goes smooth. We're working with the junkyard dredge.
There's a lot of things that can go wrong. Lot of things.
[Dustin] Fire it up.
Open that valve over there.
You see if it's got air coming out?
Oh, yeah. It's got air.
[Dustin] The junkyard dredge is ready to go.
It is a patch up job. It is dangerous. It wasn't ever meant to run.
So, I'm taking a huge risk. I'm not sure about it but
if that's what we gotta do, there are no other options.
[Carlos] How's the hot water, hot?
Yeah! It's diveable. It's not the best but it's not horrible.
Huh! That will work. I guess. That should work.
[narrator] James has volunteered for the risky first dive,
on a bush engineered dredge that's never been tested.
Just dig as deep down as you can right here. But don't go point down and hurt yourself.
-[James] Got you. -[Dustin] Alright. Ready for our best?
- Yup. - That's a lot of weight, dude.
You're gonna need it.
Little bit nervous to come back to the Chute but gotta get the job done.
I worry about rocks falling down and junkyard dredge and Mother Nature,
whatever she wants to throw at me.
So, I'd like to... get this thing done and get outta here.
I think you'd be safe if you hug that wall.
-[Dustin] Don't get hurt. -[Carlos] Don't get hurt. Don't die.
[Dustin] Don't die.
Good.
- [Dustin] Let's get him down. - [Wes] All cleared.
- Though we need to untie this, there you go. - Hey, help me.
I'm gonna let this go, give you some slack.
[Dustin] Diver in the water.
How you doing? Go check air?
[James] Got air, got hot water.
- You got suction? - [James] Yeah, got good suction.
[narrator] Dustin's junkyard dredge works for now.
But it needs to keep supplying vital air and hot water for James to find gold.
[Dustin] James's goal today is to start off for a five foot hole all the way across.
[narrator] The Chute is the narrowest spot on McKinley Creek.
They must dredge beneath the raging water, to uncover a plunge pool in the bedrock.
That they believe contains a pile of gold.
So, let's get all this [bleep]
all done, all those step downs.
Right now, our total count with gold is...
[James] I've a hard spot, the water is pushing really hard.
[Dustin] Love it. It looks like it's beating you up right now even.
[Dustin] All the rock here is looking good. He's starting a good dig.
We're already-- All the baskets we're pulling out.
This place is uh... It's moving so quickly. You have to be
a heavy rock or gold...
to stay in here. So, this is where we wanna be.
[Carlos] So far James is doing a good job.
He's getting a lot of material out.
Dredge is looking good. Very cute.
And the Chute right here is-- The gold is at the very, very bottom.
So, anything that's on top of that, has to come out.
You're not gold, you gotta come out.
[James] I think that basket, I can't tell how full it is.
[Dustin] Coming up.
This is probably the most amazing dig we've ever done.
And I hope, with all my person,
that this is the life changing hole right here. That's what I want.
The amount of gold down there that I hope is there.
It could be life altering in a huge way.
Or it could be nothing. [laughing]
If it's [bleep] empty, I'll [bleep] cry all the way home.
[mimicking crying] We don't have any gold.
[Paul] I'll get suited up, then we can find some gold.
[narrator] After their first successful dive running two dredges,
Kayla's now expecting every crew member to pull double duty.
It's gonna be my first dive for this season.
I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's... an amazing spot.
[narrator] At 12 feet and back on virgin ground,
Kayla's banking on two divers and two dredges cutting in half the time
it takes to get to bedrock gold.
[Paul] The gold's coming up so high up on top.
That's a really good sign this is a really good spot. I mean it's set up perfect
for a perfect gold drop out so...
I've got real high hopes for finding some pretty good gold today.
That's it. Time to get in the water.
Today is Paul's first dive on our crew, I've heard that he's a really good diver
and he knows what he's doing. So, I'm excited to have him on our team.
With him and Scott both in the water, I think we'll get a lot moved today.
[Mark] Fire it up.
[engine starts]
[Mark] Alright, alright, alright.
- [Kayla] Try it now. - Oh, that's a lot better.
Come on, let's go.
[Paul] Oh! It's cold water.
Scott, get your ass down here and get to work.
I'm getting there.
[Kayla] Alright. Everything is set up. You're good to go?
[Scott] Good to go.
Alright. Here we go!
Man in the water.
[narrator] Kayla's plan, both divers will follow the pay streak
down the creek wall to the bedrock bottom
where they believe there is a massive pile of gold.
There is a big ass rock. Holy [bleep].
How's the visibility down there? It looks like you guys have good water.
It's about two feet, maybe two and a half.
It's alright.
I'm up for this kind of dredging. I don't have to move anywhere.
[Paul laughing]
- This is Fred's kind of dredging. - Yeah, right?
Hey Paul, how you doing down there? Everything going good?
[Mark] Do you feel like you're back at home?
[Paul] Oh [bleep] yeah.
It's so nice to be back.
[Kayla] Having Paul here is definitely gonna help us
because we can move more material
with two dredges running and two divers at all times.
[breathing heavily]
[Scott] Hey, Paul, Paul! Come here, come here, come here.
- [Paul] What do you got? - [Scott] Look right where my light's pointing.
[Paul chuckles] Oh, dude!
- [Scott] You see it? - [Paul] Yeah. [bleep]
We have it.
Nice little picker.
Yeah. Yeah.
- Did you find a picker? - Yup. Yeah.
I had high hopes for today 'cause yesterday we already found pickers
when were doing the flood debris so, it should be a good day.
[narrator] After dredging the lose material,
and collecting the pickers along the bedrock wall,
Scott and Paul get into a new layer of rocks at 13 feet.
There's plenty of rocks here we can put the basket.
- [Kayla] Basket is over the hole. - Alright.
Wanna lower it down slowly?
[Kayla] Going down.
- [Kayla] Ready to go up? - [Scott] Yes.
[Scott] Alright. Pull it up.
- All clear? - [Scott] All clear.
Alright, going up.
Alright there. Now set it down slowly.
That's good.
- [rocks tumbling] - [Mark] What the hell?
- [Kayla] Whoa! Watch out. - [Mark] Run, run, run!
[Mark] Get up here, guys, get up here!
- Divers up! Divers up! - [Kayla] Go, go, go...
- [James] Oh oh, I know who's in the water. - [Dustin] What?
[James] My lucky miner, Charlie. [laughs]
[laughing]
[narrator] At the Chute, James's lucky charm wants in on the action.
[James] Oh, I touched this thing and it went sproing!
I was like, what is that?
Ah! He just wants to go dredging.
Save some more, I think we're both gonna be.
[chuckles] Charlie, that's funny.
Alright. Going up.
[narrator] At House Rock, Kayla's mission to run two divers on two dredges
is violently cut short.
- [Mark] What the hell? - [Kayla] Watch out! Watch out!
Whoa, whoa...
[Mark] Run, run, run! Get up here.
- Divers up! Divers up! - [Kayla] Go, go, go...
[rocks falling]
[Mark] Get out of there!
[narrator] A landslide from the 200 foot high cliffs,
has thrown a ton of deadly rocks on to the miners and film crew.
Oh my [bleep]. This is crazy.
That would have killed someone.
- [Kayla] Everyone out. - [Mark] Everything in Alaska wants to kill you.
Did anything hit you guys down there?
[Kayla] Boulders came rolling down the side of the mountain.
There was no warning. All of sudden it just came crashing down.
[narrator] Deadly rock fall means calling the dive at the worst possible time.
Just as they struck gold.
[Paul] With all that stuff coming down to get the divers out,
call it short, I mean...
There's no gold worth dying for. So if there's a rock slide coming and
we gotta get out, that's what we gotta do.
Live to dive another day.
[James] Feel like we're getting somewhere today.
- That sounds good to me. - Yeah.
[narrator] After four hours diving of the junkyard dredge,
James has gotten them four feet closer to the finish line at the bedrock.
[James] This basket's awesome.
You could get into the basket with the big rocks if you wanted to.
- [Dustin] Do you know where the bedrock edge is? - [James] Yes.
On the downstream side or the upstream?
Downstream... I can go over to the wall and follow it down.
But I got pretty good hole going.
[Dustin] I think we're done.
Let's get him up for now. Let's get him up.
[Carlos] Hey James, we're gonna bring you up.
- Your dive is finished. - [James] Copy that.
[James] I dug a hole didn't I? Wow! [chuckles]
Alright. [chuckles]
- [Dustin] Good dive. - [James] Yeah, I felt like I did a lot.
- [Dustin] It looked like you did a lot. - I got about four feet deep.
Four feet alright. I'll take that.
You see me when I came up? I had to go up a mountain.
- [Dustin] Oh wow. - [James] Yeah.
[James] First dive in the Chute.
I pulled out a ton of material.
I dug a hole in the roughest spot that you can dig in so far.
[Wes] It's a great day. I mean, I'm excited to be down here at the Chute again.
Junkyard dredge's working good.
Winch is working good. Heat is good.
It's a great day.
It'll be good when we have some gold, it'll happen here pretty soon.
Day one, beautiful, complete, success.
We're back at the Chute. The Chute is what's gonna pay off.
I guarantee it.
[narrator] After half a season of setbacks,
Dustin's crew is finally making great progress at the Chute,
the site he believes is the holy grail in their hunt for gold.
You guys did great today. The Chute will get done this year.
We got to dig it.
If no one's been down there, we're all about to be rich.
Good dive, man.
[narrator] At House Rock, after a rockslide
nearly took out their operation.
[Paul] That could have been really bad.
[Scott] Dude that's some crazy rock slide there.
[narrator] The miners risk a quick check in the sluice box.
[Kayla] Turn that one all the way off.
I see gold already.
[Scott] Holy [bleep] y'all!
[Kayla] Four pickers down there. There's one there. It's all over.
[Paul] Yeah.
- [Kayla] That's nice. - [Scott] It's in there.
Look at all this up here still.
You have to get the pickers out.
[Kayla] That's a good little pile right there.
[Scott] We're killing it down there too, dude. Look at that.
[Kayla] It's great. That's a good day.
- [Paul] Good [bleep]. - [Scott] Yeah, it is.
- [rocks clattering] - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Is that a rock? - I think that's where they were coming down from.
[Kayla] Over...
[Paul] You can see where they creamed everything on the way down.
[Mark] I think y'all need to go look at the other dredge.
[Paul] Roll the dice and walk to that side of the creek.
Be careful.
- Whoa whoa whoa. - It's all over the back.
- Oh! That's a big one. - Holy [bleep] yeah!
[Scott] That's [bleep] exciting right there.
I never saw that piece either.
But the amount of gold that we just got for the area that we actually dredged...
That is some rich ground. That is some very rich ground.
[narrator] Kayla's gutsy decision to run two dredges
with just four people has paid off.
[Paul] Kayla's doing a really good job. She's more experienced
than any of us on this dredging.
[narrator] The dive may have been cut short, but her plan is working.
And they are on the best gold yet.
I can't wait to see bedrock. Bedrock's gonna be loaded.
We find that bottom valley or that right track--
[Scott] Dude, it's gonna be loaded.
- We're gonna be pulling up nuggets bigger than that. - I hope so.
For me, coming in fresh and seeing gold in the first dive is just...
that's amazing.
Running two dredges, we were just able to move so much more material
even in a shorter amount of time. We don't know how deep bedrock is yet.
We haven't hit bedrock at all so to be finding gold like this, that's a good sign.
[narrator] On the next, Gold Rush: White Water...
Right now, we're failing.
[Dustin] No hot water. Diver's got no hot water.
[Carlos] Fire, fire...
[all cheering]
Boom!
Wow!
[Mark] That's that shiny stuff.
We have a hose and it's so flimsy.
That's all we can get a hold off right now.
We're gonna have to take their hose. That's it.
[James] Don't drop it, whatever you do.
What's the chances of me falling and really hurting myself?
Oh, holy [bleep]!
Yeah, Dustin.
[Kayla] That's not good.
We've blown a lot of gold out.
[Dustin] I keep telling him to stop digging down and he won't stop.
It fills the death trap.
[all laughing]
Oh, my [bleep]!
We're back on the gold!