[dramatic music playing]
[rebreather hissing]
Gary, Gary.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary]
-[soft alarm beeping] -[Gary] Woah.
[groans]
[Vernon] Oh boy. That ain't good.
Take in the slack!
[Vernon] That umbilical is his lifeline
and it's tangled up around some ice.
He can't get through the hole.
[Gary groans]
[rapid breathing]
[ice flow crackling]
[narrator] So far this season,
one miner is leading the pack.
Chris McCully has fought through the El Nino battered ice...
[Chris speaking]
[cheers]
20.9, baby.
[narrator] ...to amass enough gold to break away
from the rest of the fleet.
Now, with the gold count leader down for maintenance,
the other captains find themselves
with their backs against the wall
and facing a choice.
Will they keep their current plans in motion,
or throw out the playbook and seek a brand new path?
[snowmobile rumbling]
-[man speaking] -[Zeke] Good morning.
[narrator] New father Zeke Tenhoff has a special audience on the ice.
-[Zeke] Good morning. -[Lexie]
This is my wife, Lexie, back for ice mining.
-She's acclimating well to the environment. -[laughs]
[narrator] And it's bringing the urgency of his situation home.
This is Boden Jupiter Tenhoff.
He's like, seven months old now.
He's gonna be hanging out at the ice dredge here for a while.
[Boden coos]
Yeah.
This is why I do what I do.
It's all for my family.
We're not all living under one roof in Nome yet.
This winter I'm trying to get my yurt outfitted with water and power and other utilities
so that we can all live there.
The problem is that I don't have any gold banked up so far,
so I need to get into something substantial
and I need to make it happen today.
The plan is just finish out this hole.
Um, what I'm really kind of, like, hoping is that
this gold stays kind of consistent
continuing on over to the west.
Because if that's the case,
I think we can finish this ice season strong.
I'm gonna really try and push it today.
We found some gold here in this location,
so we're gonna tag team and really try to clean it out today.
When we put it on the scale, I really want to see
at least eight ounces from this spot.
The pressure is really on for me.
Having Lexie and Boden here watching
really just drives it home kind of what's at stake.
[digital pinging]
[wind blowing]
[anticipatory music playing]
[Zeke]
[rebreather hissing]
[Sam]
[Zeke]
Are you down to the bottom yet?
[Zeke]
[man] Roger.
[machinery rattling]
How's the ground looking?
[Zeke]
[tense music playing]
[coughs]
[Boden crying]
[Zeke] The regulator is where you get your air for breathing
and moisture in that system can cause the valves to freeze shut.
That's what happened, so I wasn't getting enough air.
Knowing that my wife is watching me underwater, struggling to breathe,
makes it extra scary.
[Zeke]
[rebreather hissing]
[man]
[Zeke]
[man]
Well, I'll just let you grind on it for a little bit.
[Zeke]
Just be careful.
[Zeke]
[narrator] Across the ice...
[dramatic music playing]
[Shawn] Heading out to meet Joe.
We're gonna go check out, see what the snow conditions are,
ice conditions are out here at the Tomcod.
Let's roll the dice.
[narrator] Well into the back half of winter,
Shawn Pomrenke finds himself in unprecedented territory,
in danger of falling short of his winter goal.
Now Mr. Gold's looking to his home turf to save his season
if Mother Nature allows it.
[Shawn] We just ain't getting the numbers we need on Vernon's claim.
I don't like little tiny clean ups.
We need some big ones.
I'm at a crisis point.
We couldn't work the Tomcod because of the bad ice
at the beginning of the season,
so I had to make a deal with Vernon for 56.
But the gold's been next to nothing.
I don't have near the gold I want and we're running out of time.
So we're headed back to the Tomcod,
see if the ice is any better now.
I hope it is 'cause I got the biggest plan
of my career riding on this season.
Got a lot on my mind, a lot on my plate.
I got an inland mine to fund,
Joe's got startup money he needs for his dredge.
We got to see some bigger numbers.
And gold mining's a gamble,
but this is where I've seen the gold in the past
and you gotta gamble a little bit,
especially if you want to be a gold miner.
[inquisitive music playing]
Looking pretty smooth.
Looking way better than it did a month ago.
Since the last time we were out here, this blowing snow,
it's kind of filled it in.
Definitely looking like we might be able to make it out here.
Oh, there's Joe!
[door squeaks open]
Hey, Joe.
What do you think?
[Joe] Quite a few miles of ice here yet.
[Shawn] May be a good idea, huh?
[Joe] I think it's doable.
-Yeah, sure. -Yeah.
[Shawn] The ice isn't perfect.
I'm gonna need some monster clean outs,
double digits the rest of the way.
One thing about the Tomcod, I know where the gold's at.
I can feel it.
We're gonna kill it.
I just gotta get back in the game before it's too late.
We definitely are going mining out on the Tomcod.
Piles of gold in a short amount of time.
[dramatic music playing]
[engine stops]
So, how's it looking, Gary?
-Ready to rock and roll. -All right.
[narrator] Off pace to hit his winter goal,
Vernon Adkison is down to one diver,
Gary Panos.
Oh man, it hurts so bad.
[narrator] After rookie Chris Numink was sidelined indefinitely.
Blew out an eardrum.
Let's get in the water, get some gold.
[machinery starts]
This is a tough spot.
Since Chris blew his ear, I've not been able to find another diver
and we're headed into crunch time.
I've been riding Gary like a racehorse all season.
I don't know how much more I can put on his shoulders before he breaks.
But we need that gold.
[digital pinging]
Today is gonna be a great day for a dive.
[dramatic music playing]
[rebreather hissing]
[machinery whirring]
How's the ground?
[Gary]
[Vernon]
[Gary]
So Gary, how's that bottom looking?
[Gary]
When you get down through the rocks and cobble,
have you gotten to the pay layer yet?
[Gary]
Yeah, okay.
[Gary]
[Vernon] All right. That's what I want to hear, Gary.
Stay on it.
Gary is one of the best divers up here.
And the gold we're on is primo.
I just don't know if we can get
where we need to be with one diver.
We'll see.
[Gary]
Yeah, yeah. That's nice. Keep it flowing.
[Gary]
[narrator] While Vernon's team starts to heat up,
three miles west...
Hot water's going, box is de-thawing,
everything's ready to go.
We're about ready to fire up the engine.
[narrator] Against the ropes with the clock ticking,
Kris Kelly's unleashing what he hopes will be his secret weapon.
Today is PJ's make it or break it day.
I personally think he's gonna make it.
[engine starts]
This season's been a nightmare.
We're on good gold, but equipment problems have killed us.
We patched up the sluice, but there's not a lot of time left
in the season to get what we need.
So my strategy is to have a bunch of divers
that can work around the clock.
PJ in the house.
I'm hoping to rely on PJ to be the final member of the dive squad.
He's done some diving.
Not gold mining, not underneath the ice
and not in the Bering Sea.
Physically, he should be able to do it.
He's a body builder.
But if he can't make it, it's another thing gone wrong.
And we can't afford any more problems.
[digital pinging]
[Andy]
[PJ]
[Andy]
Not to add pressure or anything, but I didn't tell you.
Uh, if you do this, great.
But if you don't do this, you're fired.
And I hope you understand that.
Go, team, go!
[dramatic music playing]
At first, I just want to get down there
and see how it feels underwater.
-[Andy] You ready for the cap? -[PJ] Yeah.
Okay.
[rebreather hissing]
[heavy rapid breathing]
Oh, he's breathing like a mother [bleep]
Yeah, he is.
Are you on the bottom yet?
[PJ]
Yeah, baby! You made it!
He made it.
Tell me when you reach the nozzle.
[PJ] All right, I'm at the nozzle.
Yeah, buddy. Okay, well,
now you just put the nozzle between your legs
and you kneel down.
[PJ]
[Kris]
So you know that, at this point,
-he's already made it past the make or break. -Yeah.
[Kris] How you doing? Are you feeling comfortable?
[PJ]
I see little starfish and little crabs.
Kind of cool to see all this underwater for the first time.
That's beautiful. I love that you love the wildlife down there.
So in order to make a good miner,
you have to have, like, tunnel vision.
[PJ]
Good job, buddy. Yep, that's, um--
So that's like, iron
and it's almost the exact same weight of gold.
So you have a really good chance
of finding gold in that [bleep]
[PJ] It looks like there's some little pieces of gold on there.
[Kris] Yeah!
You're doing great, man!
He's doing good.
[smooth jazz music playing]
You know, I've got coffee coming, a Jameson.
[narrator] And now it's another Social Hour with Vernon.
[Vernon] Well, let's see what's happening out there in the world of social media.
[electronic ping]
[Vernon reading]
Well, uh, you know, if I got to do number two,
guess what? I do number two.
But yes, I did have a close call.
It was several years ago.
I was pulling my rig out on the ice with Jason Walker.
We got out there and I had a, um...
I'll put it that way.
It need to desperately.
It's gonna be pretty damn juicy.
And so, what I did was shut down.
I had to come out of about five layers.
...and I let it rip.
[loud water sloshing]
[Vernon groaning] That's pretty bad.
After it was over with, I started to get up off of that skid,
and my nuts had frozen to the skid.
And I'm not gonna tell you what Jason had to do to get...
Get me unstuck.
-[rubber stretching] -[cartoonish groan]
[Vernon] But it was a very traumatic experience for me.
But Jason, he was very helpful.
Matter of fact, I think he enjoyed it.
[narrator] Thanks for dropping by
for another Social Hour with Vernon.
Well, I mean, some things stick and you...
You don't want to go there.
[chuckling]
[Shawn] Load up all our gear and head west.
[narrator] Team Pomrenke is on the move.
We're about sick of 56.
It's not gonna work.
Ice looks good there,
so we're headed straight to Tomcod.
We've got everything tied up, we got all our gear tied together.
Off we go.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Less than a mile away...
[Vernon] Damn.
I don't know where in the hell Shawn's going.
They were right over there
about 100 yards away.
I thought they were gonna make a stand, but looks like they're...
they're moving.
I don't know if they're gonna stay on 56, they might head for the beach.
Maybe he's done for the season, I don't know.
Looks like after all that Shawn's leaving 56.
I can't say I'm not disappointed.
I didn't get any royalties from him,
so I guess it didn't work out for either of us. [chuckles]
Just puts me up against it even more.
I don't know what in the hell I was thinking about
when I told him I was gonna let him have the first two weeks for free.
[narrator] Across the claim...
[Nate] How's it going down there?
[Zeke]
[narrator] After three hours,
the first game of Zeke Tenhoff's doubleheader is nearly complete.
[Zeke] I'm gonna wrap this up.
Sounds good. I'll, uh, pedal down and get things ready.
[narrator] Now, it's Nate's job to jump in for the second half.
Hit some gold, it's under a lot of rocks and sand.
[baby babbling]
The ice down there is really harrowing.
There's just giant free-floating chunks
hanging directly above your head.
So it's nice to get back topside and see my family,
and have them know that I'm safe and sound.
Now it's time for Nate to get down there and pick up where I left off.
So, yeah, when you go down there'll be a big ice feature
that comes right down, right here.
Comes always all the way down to the bottom.
And then there's, like, some ice chandelier overhead hazard things
kind of, like, over in this area.
Just... super hazardous, perilous.
Yeah.
I think a lot of the blocks under there are real loose.
-Taking your life in your hands, basically. -[Nate]
[Zeke] Hideously dangerous.
[upbeat music playing]
[Zeke] Looks good.
[Nate]
[groans]
-[Zeke] -[Nate]
[Zeke]
[Nate]
[Zeke]
[Nate]
Yeah, watch out for reg freezes, too.
You can get one at any minute.
[Nate]
[Zeke] Try to be careful. Try to be relaxed about it.
But it's like, giant ice, jagged ice things
coming all the way down to the bottom
and, like, your [bleep] tether loops around 'em.
They're all moving around.
It's dark. Pitch black.
[Nate]
[narrator] Back on Vernon's site...
[upbeat music playing]
[Gary]
-Gary, Gary. -[Gary]
[Vernon]
[Gary]
[narrator] Down to one diver,
Vernon Adkison's trying to manage his workhorse for the long haul.
[Gary]
Okay, Gary's coming up. Gary's coming up. Tend to the umbilical.
[Gary] Oh, [bleep].
[groans]
Take in the slack.
It's getting tangled up down there somewhat.
It's easy to get that umbilical wrapped around a hose.
Sometimes it gets tangled on something that's hanging down from the...
some of the ice that's hanging--
[Gary]
[Vernon] Oh, boy. That ain't good.
Take in the slack!
[Gary]
Well, his umbilical is his lifeline
and it's tangled up around some ice, he can't get to the hole.
[Gary groaning]
Okay, pull it in.
[Gary]
[Vernon] Evidently, he got tangled up in the ice.
He was having some trouble there for a while, but he managed to...
get freed up.
That's what makes ice dredging super dangerous.
Let me go out there and see how he's doing.
I think I got tangled up on some ice
when I was going all the way around the hole, somewhere it got tangled up.
I was pulling on it. It was taking me away from the hole.
[Vernon] That was too close for comfort.
And if Gary's logging all the drive hours,
the chances of something like this happening again will increase.
That's why having only one diver is a problem.
It puts the whole season in jeopardy.
All right. Well, let's get the hell out of here.
[upbeat music playing]
-Everything okay? -[PJ]
[narrator] After three hours, Reaper Nation's new recruit,
bodybuilder PJ Diaz, is still going strong.
How's it feel down there?
-Everything feels good, looks good. -[Kris]
[PJ]
[Kris]
-PJ's doing a great job. -Yeah.
He's not freaking out.
I haven't heard "help me," or he's not screaming for anything.
[PJ] That's good.
[Kris]
[PJ] All right. I'll be up there right now.
[Kris] PJ proved he can be part of the dive team.
Now we can put more hours on the box.
He even got some gold. But I don't wanna waste time doing the cleanup.
We're gonna be ready tomorrow,
and we're gonna get this operation pumping from now on.
-How was it? -Good.
You did a great job, buddy. I knew you were gonna make it. I really did.
Good job.
Huh? Everybody, tell him "good job."
-[Andy] -Yeah.
Now PJ's not only a bodybuilder,
but he's a Bering Sea gold diver.
[sensual music playing]
-[record scratches] -Man, uh, you can put your clothes on now.
You did a really good job. I'm just joking with you.
No pat on the back, though.
[narrator] Three miles east...
[upbeat music playing]
How you doing?
[Nate] Beside from these sketchy pressure ridges,
I'm feeling really good down here.
[narrator] First mate Nate is keeping Team Tenhoff
on the gold for a second round.
[Nate]
I just remembered why I love this.
[Zeke]
[Nate] Yeah, dude.
Definitely not gonna get comfortable, that's for sure.
This actually might be pretty deep into it.
There's gold underneath all those layers for sure, there's no question.
So, we're not, like, asking ourselves, "Well, are we still in some gold?"
I mean, there's gold.
Get that dog. Get that dog. Get him.
I'm feeling the pressure to get my yurt all setup to live in,
but having my family up here is a great morale boost.
You got him, you got him.
They're the reason that I'm doing all this.
Plus, it's cool to see Boden taking in all these new sites and sounds.
Yum.
You like that? Avocado?
[Nate]
[labored breathing]
-Whoo. -[Zeke] It freeze-up on ya?
[Nate]
[Zeke] Damn it!
Oh, my God.
[groaning]
I'm [bleep] exhausted.
Holy [bleep].
[groans]
I had a bad freeze-up.
It just froze completely solid.
So it's kind of scary. I had to...
I had to get out of there really fast.
Luckily I was close to the hole. But, uh...
Whoo. Scary.
Yeah, you gotta be on your toes
for reg freeze-ups all the time.
You have to, like, be prepared for every breath that you breathe,
and that regulator can be the last breath that you have.
So you need to, like... You have to be able to get back out.
Otherwise you perish.
[Nate] It means a lot for me to get back under this ice.
I have a super crazy last year.
Um...
I had a kid last year,
and right when we found out that we were having my first child
they found a large tumor in my spine.
Um...
I underwent radiation and from what we can see, it's working.
So my life has been turned upside down.
Having my first kid has been, you know, an amazing journey.
And I'm, like, such a proud dad.
And it's probably the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.
But at the same time, I'm still not out of the woods.
So, right now it's just really important
for me to just, uh, see this through
because this is how I make my living in Alaska.
And so a lot of people think that's crazy, you know,
living out here on the ice and doing this, but I love every minute of it.
[dramatic music playing]
Got all our stuff off of 56,
we're back on home turf.
Home team. Tomcod!
[narrator] In a last-ditch effort to rescue his season,
Mr. Gold's headed for home sweet home.
[Shawn] Joe is ready to mine.
Looks like he might already have a hole dug.
-Sup, Joe. -Sup, Shawn.
-You made it. -Yes.
-Doing good? -Build right now.
-Guess I'm gonna go grab the pump shack. -Yeah.
Joe's digging the hole.
Hopefully, we can have all the shacks in place, dive hole, tailings hole dug,
that way tomorrow... [whistles]
When you're mining, there's moments you'll get frustrated.
Then, there's moments you'll feel more alive than ever.
Come on, girl. Let's go.
That's how I feel right now.
It's a long shot to hit 100 ounces.
But if there's any place I can make it happen, it's right here.
Good home, get a good night's rest.
Come back and hit it hard in the morning.
Feels good to be back on the Tomcod.
[narrator] Twelve miles east...
[upbeat music playing]
[Zeke] We have a bunch of hours on this hole.
And I saw gold that I like in places,
and I saw gold that I didn't really like in places.
But we moved a lot of ground and put in a lot of time.
So, we just need to clean out the whole box,
weight it out, and see where that puts us.
Maybe it'll be good and the numbers will work.
If the numbers don't work, then we're gonna have to have a conversation
about what the smart thing to do is
going forward.
There's a bunch of gold in there.
There's another bunch of gold.
We ran all our concentrates through the Gold Cube,
and then I'm just gonna pan through them.
-[Alexis] That's the final? -[Zeke] That's it. That's all of it.
So like, we've been working so hard for so long.
And this is the first hole that, like, that has produced anything.
And so it's difficult to, like, look at this pile of gold and, like,
have it reflect the amount of effort we've already, like, expended.
All right.
[dramatic music playing]
Tenth of an ounce.
0.7, 1.2.
Oh, yeah, we got two ounces.
-That's better. -2.3, 2.4.
2.5, 2.6.
Come on, three. Come on, three ounces.
2.88 ounces.
[narrator] 2.88 ounces is worth about 6,700 bucks.
And Zeke is far from home free.
Aye yi yi.
I don't really know what to say.
-Like-- -[Nate]
Yeah, it's on the low end, you know?
It was a lot of work.
I... [scoffs]
I agree, yeah. It's a lot of work building up to it.
But the fact is, at least we're on gold, we can keep doing it.
So you're saying that you see this gold weigh out
and it motivates you to work harder?
-Yeah. -[Zeke] Great. [chuckles]
There's nothing else to do.
What'd you think, Lexi?
-I mean-- -[both laughing]
The numbers are a little disappointing
for how much work you guys have done, but, yeah.
If you look at it, like, this gold came from this hole,
then it is motivating, it is inspirational.
I think it's, like, kind of right on the line.
Where if it was, like, less than this, it might be, like,
"All right, [bleep] it. Let's get our crap off the ice. Let's leave"
I guess... I mean, it doesn't sound like that's where everybody's at.
What I'm hearing is that like, it's worth continuing.
We're miners, let's mine.
We're finally on gold. We're set up.
So we need to at least get what's in this area.
What I wanna do is, for the next week,
just go as hard as we possibly can
and see if that gets the numbers up.
-[Gabe] Yeah. -[Nate] Yeah.
[Zeke] We could still come out ahead.
[narrator] Back in town...
[Vernon] Weigh it up, Gary. Let's see what we got here.
All right, here we go.
[narrator] After the close call,
the captain and his lone diver hope the scale brings good news.
-[Vernon] Do the honors. -Let's see what we got.
[dramatic music playing]
[Vernon] Coming up on three,
five,
eight,
thirteen, 15,
16.16.
All right.
[narrator] 16.16 ounces is worth over 37 grand.
The Adkison Team's best haul this season.
And despite being down to a single diver
Vernon just may reach his goal after all.
-[Vernon] That's a nice one, right there. -Awesome.
[Vernon] Gary's gonna break if I keep pushing.
So I'm doing my damnedest to find another diver.
He's crushing it right now.
And I don't mind that gold count getting higher and higher.
All right. Well, here ya go.
-All right. -[Gary] Yeah, nice.
[Vernon] We're in the money.
[narrator] Vernon finds himself in second place.
As Mr. Gold gets ready for an end-of-the-season run.
Next time...
You have to go where the gold's at.
...on Bering Sea Gold...
[Kris] We're gonna make some money.
This is a compression that nothing ever escapes from.
And as we get closer to it, the gold could be insanely high.
[Kris] How in the [bleep] are we gonna get this outta here?
[grunting] No, that's not gonna work.
This is [bleep].
-[Zeke] -[Nate]
[Zeke]
Dude, that's [bleep] awesome.
[Zeke] Oh, nice. Here we go.