[clock ticking]
[narrator] Only 72 hours remain before the doors slam shut on ice mining.
And the fleet is feeling the heat.
If this don't work, I'll be done.
[narrator] Now, with some captains closing in on their goals,
and others trying to claw their way back,
it's time for the miners to give it everything they've got.
We've got to keep the ball rolling, dive after dive.
[Gary grunting]
[Gary speaking]
-[Vernon speaking] -[Gary speaking]
-Holy [bleep]. -[Gary grunting]
[narrator] And leave nothing behind.
Yeah...
[Chris] Oh, [bleep].
Oh, I love that sound.
[Chris] That's more gold than I've seen in any winter.
[Nate] Look at that picker, dude!
[Andy speaking]
Yeah, baby! We're gonna make some money!
There's so many things to do right now, it's almost overwhelming.
[narrator] In winter's final days,
Shawn Pomrenke is using gold from his ice operation
to try to uncover the treasure of a lifetime.
Star and Joe are out mining away on the Tomcod kicking ass.
But now I gotta get this inland up and running.
The inland is thousands of acres of land to mine. It's exciting.
I'm gambling everything I have on this inland mine.
I think I know where the old timers worked in the original gold rush.
And I believe they left behind 50,000 ounces.
I've been doing my homework, so I know where I want to start out.
But I need to do some more investigations.
I got all my pennies in this basket.
If this don't work, I'll be done.
I invested everything I had to get access to these grounds,
including the gold from this ice season,
to find out if I'm onto something or not.
The first thing I had to do was drain all this water out of the pit.
It's 60 feet deep, and we've done that.
Now we've got to clear all the ice
and dirt out of the way, which is another 10 to 20 feet.
Then we'll find out if there's pay down there
or I've just pissed away a fortune.
Late 1800s,
they come through and mine this with picks and shovels.
The old timers went after a layer about that thick and,
and left the rest and those spots are hot.
Hopefully, we're headed in the right direction.
We'll know today.
Nervous, excited.
Either there's going to be a bunch of pay dirt or there's not.
We're like gold mining archeologists.
I want to find ancient beach lines, old mine shafts to prove
that this is where the old timers worked.
With modern equipment, we could reach ground that those guys might have missed.
And we're talking over $100 million in gold.
We got to get the ice out of the way.
It's time to get to bedrock.
[narrator] In ancient times,
this location would have been on the coast of the Bering Sea.
Gold carried by rivers would concentrate here on the bedrock
of what was then the beach.
[Shawn laughing]
[Shawn] Pay dirt, pay dirt.
Finally. [laughs]
Pumping water, doze and running the excavator
and finally seeing some pay dirt.
Yeah, heading in the right direction.
[narrator] As Shawn breaks ground, out on the ice...
A brand-new hole. Things are looking pretty good.
We're about ready to go?
[narrator] With the claim sporting the best ice in Nome this season,
Vernon Adkison was primed to be in the catbird seat.
But in winter's waning hours, he's in the hot seat
as crew relations reach a breaking point.
We're a one-trick pony here, and he's the pony. We'll ride him hard.
Things have not panned out the way I'd planned this season.
Even though I'm collecting royalties from tenants,
and the gold has been good, tensions with his crew, it made for a bumpy ride.
Chris, you put that [bleep] upside down
like I told you not to do it.
I set it in there like that!
-No, you did not. -You're gonna [bleep] piss me off.
[Chris yelling]
[Vernon] We had to say goodbye to Chris.
Sometimes you don't listen too good. The writing's on the wall.
So now we're down to just one diver.
But hopefully we'll get into this new hole
and we can get back to the business of getting gold
and cut it with the pissing and moaning.
Because we need to kill it the rest of the way.
We had a little issues with the bottom of the ice.
It didn't wanna break off even, but it was enough to get the hose in,
so hopefully I can get in.
All this ice out here is layered.
Back when it was forming, there was a lot of overlap.
Anytime we open up a new hole, we've got to make sure
it's safe for the diver to get in and out.
But the ice here is tricky.
It's about seven feet thick and multi-layered.
Even though we got through most of it,
the bottom shelf had not been completely cut out.
If that opening is too small down there,
it could get plugged by a chunk of ice, and Gary couldn't get out.
It could get dicey.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon sighs]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] We've got to enlarge the hole.
There's some layers underneath.
It's hard for him to get in.
[Gary] Damn it.
[Vernon] It's cutting into our time, but
It's got to have the hole cleared or it can't get down.
[Gary groans] [bleep]
[Vernon] By the time he gets the ice out of there,
he's gonna be too tired to dive.
That takes a hell of a lot of energy.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Did he get it loose, Kevin?
[Kevin speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] That's a big piece of ice.
[Gary speaking]
What does it look like down there?
[Gary speaking]
[engine whirring]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] It doesn't look like it's been worked.
I'm seeing some marine growth on the rock that looks pretty good.
[Gary speaking]
All right. That's what I want to hear, Gary.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
Stay on it.
[Gary speaking]
[Chris] We can't slow down.
Let's get back in money-making.
Jeff dove last night on the same hole.
And I got a text last night and said it's good ground.
Believe it or not, I had the best dream last night right after I read that text.
So I'm ready to go check this ground out.
[narrator] As the end of ice mining looms, the gold count leader is pushing his luck.
[Chris] We gotta keep the ball rolling, dive after dive after dive.
This summer, I'm gonna be paying for premium upgrades on the Norpac
so we double our goal late in the game.
200 ounces is a big goal.
But everything has already been ordered, so there's really no turning back.
To pull this off, we're going to be diving around the clock.
Wilson dove late yesterday.
Jeff dove last night. Now it's my turn.
We've got to make this happen.
I'm ready to rock and roll.
[Jeff speaking]
[Chris] All right. Just got to the bottom.
All right, bud. Let me know when you're at the nozzle.
I'll get that thing fired up for you.
[Chris speaking]
[engine whirring]
Here we go. Time to go make some money.
[Chris speaking]
Sick, man.
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] Across the ice...
[Zeke] How goes it out here?
-This spot's so hot. -[Zeke] Right on, I'm excited.
[narrator] As the season speeds into the homestretch,
perhaps no one is up against it more than Zeke Tenhoff.
Right now, we're just gonna grind out the rest of the gold we can get in these holes.
We've got a few days left.
[narrator] But the Mad Scientist's recent discovery offers a glimmer of hope.
[Zeke] I'm super stoked. We'll be diving on this hole in no time.
We're in a tough spot. The season's almost over and we're very far from our goal,
and I need money for my family.
The last time out, we got into some great gold at the edge of a reef.
Are you liking our spot?
[Zeke speaking]
Oh, dude, that's [bleep] awesome.
[Zeke] And so we're just going to hammer this
for the rest of the time we have left out here.
[Zeke speaking]
There's like a sand line that runs along this big cobble field,
and the whole edge of that sand cobble edge is really good.
Nice.
Nate logged a dive last night and he found a really hot spot.
He thinks it might be the best gold that we've seen so far.
So I'm gonna go down and grind as many hours as I can on it.
It's kind of dark under here today.
I'm on the bottom.
I'm gonna see what I can find.
I hope this gold continues on.
All right, I'm ready for the pumps.
[Nate] Roger that.
[engine whirring]
[Zeke speaking]
You don't want to jinx it and think it's better than it is.
But seriously, there's some gold down there that looks so good.
[Zeke speaking]
Hell, yeah, dude, I'm stoked on it.
[Zeke speaking]
There's no reason not to be happy about this.
[narrator] Four miles west...
[Kris] Okay, let's get started, everybody.
I hate having to [bleep] look in my sluice box and hope I'm catching gold.
That makes me [bleep] feel violent.
[narrator] Reaper Nation's been singing the loose sluice blues this season.
[Kris] I need you guys to really take care of this girl.
[narrator] But for the final days, Captain Kris is bringing out a new sluice box
to maximize gold collection.
To begin with, it's not the new sluice, it's a old piece of [bleep] sluice
that we had to bring back because the new one didn't work.
[narrator] Oh, thank you, Kris.
Not a new sluice box after all. It's just a new old sluice,
which they valiantly tried to fix up for the final few days.
Hey, careful with the 2x4, I already broke one.
[Kris] We've been on great gold this season,
but our sluice box situation's been a disaster.
The first one leaked out the front.
[Kris yelling]
So we replaced it with the coffin sluice
that we used a couple of seasons ago.
We're leaking gold out of the box.
That's kind of a big problem.
Somehow that sluice box was actually worse.
Today we're bringing back the one we started off with.
We did the best job we could patching it up after we worked through the night.
And we've got a plan to get the best gold we've gotten all season.
I think now that we're in the deeper water,
we're just going to keep finding better gold.
The general rule is, the deeper you go, the better the gold is.
So we're going deeper.
And if the sluice isn't 100%, I still think we're gonna crush it.
Okay, good luck, buddy.
[Kris over radio] Okay, check, check.
[Andy speaking]
Okay.
[engine whirring]
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
Yeah, baby. I knew to send you down there.
How you doing? That's [bleep] amazing.
Did I tell you gold is at an all-time high?
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
We're gonna make some money today!
[Shawn] I'm pretty excited to see what's at the bottom of this cut.
[narrator] Finally reaching the pay layer, 80 feet deep.
[Shawn] It's looking good over here.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke is looking for evidence of the old time miners' footsteps.
Let's see if I can find this...
From the research I've done,
the old timers followed an intermediate beach line that runs through this ground.
If we can find any traces of tools from the old timers
on the intermediate beach line, we'll know we're sitting on top of a possible fortune.
Where are you at?
Aw, that's good looking dirt there.
What the hell is that?
I thought I seen something in here.
Oh, boy, the old beach line.
You see the beach line in that where it changes?
From right here down was old beach.
A million plus years ago, the ocean was right here.
Oh, look, all kinds of seashells.
Mother Nature washed and concentrated all the gold on this beach line.
So that's what we're going after.
I'm gonna open this up a little bit more
so I can see if I can tell which way the old timers are headed
and make sure we're heading in the right direction.
If they were here mining, you know there's good gold around here.
This is a good sign.
[narrator] Back out on the ice...
I'm doing a check-in. How are things going?
[Andy speaking]
Smoke it, baby.
[narrator] Kris Kelly's plan to go deeper
could be resulting in deeper pockets for Reaper Nation.
[Andy speaking]
You know, you made it almost three hours.
So you did really well.
So come on up, get warm.
-[Andy speaking] -[Kris] Good job.
Turn it off.
We're gonna check the box out.
Well, that's not good.
I don't see [bleep]. But that doesn't mean it's not in here, okay?
Like, it's probably in here.
So, I'm not seeing gold in the box.
Two possibilities.
One, it's deep in the mat and we're actually doing fine.
Or all the work and fixes didn't do anything.
[man speaking]
But I'd like to see it.
[man speaking]
All I can do is hope it's option number one.
And if I get down there and put a bunch of hours on the box,
we're gonna have a killer day.
Good luck, Kris.
[Andy] Good luck, Jay.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy] Yeah, I know.
It'll clear up as you go.
Don't worry.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
Are you liking the ground?
[Kris speaking]
There's gold throughout all of this.
[Kris speaking]
Yeah, I know.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris] We're on gold. That's all that matters.
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah.
[Zeke speaking]
[narrator] Well behind his season goal in winter's final days,
Zeke Tenhoff is pushing past the five-hour mark.
[Zeke speaking]
Yeah, I thought it looked really good,
And, uh, it's kind of all over the place here, too, so...
Looks hopeful.
[Zeke speaking]
[Nate speaking]
I'm gonna run the pumps down and...
pull the tether.
[Zeke speaking]
[Nate] Yo, dude. Great dive.
[Zeke speaking]
I'm really hoping that this cleanup's
gonna be a big one, because we really need it.
My family needs it.
The gold here is just stellar.
I don't care if the season hasn't been so good so far.
If we can end strong, it will make up for it.
-[Nate] Gah! Look at that picker, dude. -[Zeke] Look at that.
[Nate laughing]
[narrator] Across the claim...
[Gary groaning]
Gary's getting his ya-yas out down here.
-[groaning] -[Gary groaning]
There you go.
[narrator] Clocking in on his fifth hour on the gold,
fatigue is setting in
for Vernon Adkison's only driver.
[Gary groaning]
It's hazardous. It's hazardous.
Gary cut out a pretty good sized chunk of ice,
so he was able to get in the water.
But there were other layers underneath
and there's a possibility that the current will come along
and grab that chunk of ice and move it and plug up your hole.
That could be fatal.
It's a dangerous business.
[Gary groans] [bleep]
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groans]
This is what happens when people get tired.
He was tired when he went down...
from fighting that ice.
[Gary groans]
[Vernon] He's getting frustrated. He's tired.
[Gary groans]
I gotta pull him up.
I can't stand listening to this [bleep].
Come on up, Gary.
[Gary speaking]
Idle down. He's coming up.
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groans]
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Holy [bleep]!
[Gary groans]
[groaning loudly]
[Gary groaning]
[groaning continues]
[Vernon] Is it still plugged?
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groaning]
This son of a bitch.
[bleep]
[Vernon] The bottom of the hole was awfully small,
and now there's an ice chunk blocking it.
Gary can't get out.
[Gary groans]
[Vernon speaking]
[Vernon] We can't reach that ice chunk from up top,
but we do have enough room to get a saw down to him.
Hopefully, he'll be able to cut his way out.
But he's already exhausted.
This is not good.
[Gary speaking]
[groaning]
Right now, everybody's stressed out.
[Gary groaning]
[Vernon] Is it clear?
[Gary speaking]
Mother [bleep]!
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groaning]
[groaning continues]
-[Vernon] It's clear? -[Gary] Yeah.
All right. He's coming up.
[Gary speaking]
It's clear now.
But, um, this was a very close call.
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groans] [bleep]
[grunting]
[Vernon] How're you feeling?
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Nothing comes easy
when it comes to mining and especially ice mining.
It's a tough business.
Let's get [bleep] put away and go get some rest.
[Kris speaking]
That's good, buddy.
You're making everybody up here happy.
[narrator] Kris Kelly's followed up a stellar dive
from brother Andy with a strong one of his own.
[Kris speaking]
[narrator] And now, Reaper Nation is on target for a big day,
as long as any of it actually remains in the sluice box.
I saw how much gold I sucked up.
When they do a cleanup, if the gold doesn't add up,
there's a problem.
I think today was a very profitable day for us.
[Kris speaking]
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
Come on up, buddy. You did good.
[Kris] Okay, great.
[Andy speaking]
[Kris speaking]
[Kris] Well, we did what we set out to do.
We got on killer gold.
[bleep] beat.
I'm hungry, and I'm glad I got a lot of gold,
Now we'll see if the sluice box caught any of it.
[narrator] Eight miles west...
Hey, bud. How's the thing going down there?
[Chris speaking]
Yeah, dude. Sweet.
[narrator] Five hours in,
and Nome's young gun still has gold in his sights.
[Chris speaking]
Copy that, I'll idle down.
[Chris speaking]
[Chris] Efficient and relentless.
That's this team right now.
Just dive after dive after dive.
No one can stop us.
Oh, [bleep]!
[cheering] Woo-hoo!
This stuff right here is looking really great.
[man] Yes, sir!
[Chris] We're still a long ways from 200 ounces.
And time is really running out.
But with this team, we can do anything.
Wow. Rock and rolling, baby.
Exactly what I want to see.
[narrator] Back on land...
[Shawn] I feel like I'm right at home. Instead of...
Instead of being under 38 feet of water,
I'm on a old beach down in a hole.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke is searching the ancient shoreline...
trying to find the site
of Nome's original gold rush.
[Shawn] Every time we've had our best years,
it's been running around the old timers
and where they've dug.
We found the beach line.
Now we just need to find evidence of where the old timers worked.
If there is,
there could be thousands upon thousands of ounces hiding beneath our feet.
Oh, what's that?
Wood.
Oh, man. They were in here.
[laughs]
There's the timbers that have been in the ground for 100 plus years.
They were here.
Oh, look. There's the shaft.
You see the wood in the wall?
That's a good sign, 'cause if they were here,
you know there was gold here
and they're doing pick and shovel and scoop by scoop.
And hopefully they didn't get it all.
[laughs]
Oh, what the hell is that?
Oh, a [bleep] pick.
[laughs] Look at that.
Look at that.
That's a 100-year-old pick.
Ah, looks brand new still,
except for the handle's a little busted up.
We'll save that one.
I'm gonna take a pan and see if they left anything behind.
I'm just gonna grab some of this right here.
Well, let's find some water,
which ain't a problem around here.
See if they left anything for us to mine.
Right now, it'll tell the tale.
Oh, yeah. There it is.
Nice chunkers in there.
Lots of finds.
Ah, we hit paydirt.
Finally.
This is amazing.
We found a whole mine site and we found gold.
It's been a tough season,
but this is proof that going after the inland mine
was the right choice.
And if everything goes right, I'm gonna make a fortune.
As soon as the water starts running
and it's warm enough to fire up the wash plant,
we're gonna fire that pig up and make some gold.
I'm excited.
This summer's gonna be fun.
Hello and welcome to another episode
of Kris Kelly's Secret Guide to Successful Mining.
Today we're gonna be talking about
the backpack to save your life.
So this is my sexy assistant, Andy Kelly.
Open it up.
-Ibuprofen. -Ibuprofen.
When you're out there,
you're literally breathing in a lot of fumes from engines.
It will give you a [bleep] headache from hell.
Or if you're me,
you get a headache from listening to your brother all day.
[Kris] Andy, I know you can hear me.
The next item is hand sanitizer
for those nasty [bleep]
that have snot hanging out their nose all the time.
[clears throat] Hand sanitizer.
Ass wipe.
Me, personally, I don't leave my house
-until I go number two. -Yeah.
Never [bleep] on the ice.
But if you do, what can you say, [bleep] happens.
Orange gloves.
There's so many things with these you can do.
You can do this. Never get your hands wet.
Um, they always stay warm or you just...
They work great.
They work for everything.
[man chuckles]
[Shawn] That's always a good sign,
when the carpets are heavy.
-[man] Feels like there's a few Benjamins in there. -[Shawn] Yeah.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke had a breakthrough at the inland mine.
[Shawn] Let's see what's in this dirt.
[narrator] Now he's hoping the ice mining team
breaks through their 100-ounce gold.
What're you guys thinkin'?
How many ounces?
[Joe] I'm hoping for the moon,
but I suppose I'll be okay
somewhere in between here and there.
[Shawn] A nice, big, fat clean up.
That's what we're looking for.
[Zeke] That's a decent test pan there.
[narrator] As the end of winter mining looms...
[Chris] Every soup is glittery.
[narrator] The Pomrenke team's not the only one
looking to hit their goal.
Let's get this in the pan.
We got some gold here.
[Nate] You got a good bit of gold there.
[narrator] As the entire fleet's feeling the pressure.
[Shawn] See what the hell we got here.
-Ready? Mind if I pour this one? -I'm ready.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
[Vernon] See what it comes out to.
Here we go.
Come on.
One...
We got two ounces.
[Vernon] Three...
Oh, I love that sound.
[Jeff] Yeah.
[Zeke] We got 3.1.
We got 4.1.
[Nate] 4.8.
That's pretty close to five ounces.
[narrator] 4.87 ounces banks over $11,000.
Far short of Zeke's hopes for the day.
And the Tenhoff team's chances
of hitting their goal remain a long shot.
Honestly, it's like, with the amount of expenses
and the amount of work that has gone into it,
the amount of gold we've got
doesn't make this, like, a huge success.
The gold in this reef is good so far.
But we need it to be great.
All we can do is keep pushing
and hope for a miracle at the end of this season.
[Vernon] Six, seven... Come on, man.
Eight, nine, ten.
10.42.
All right.
That's what I'm talking about.
[narrator] 10.42 ounces is worth over 24 grand.
And despite the scare,
the one man team of Gary keeps on rolling.
[Vernon] I'm feeling pretty good about this.
I'm happy with it.
All right.
-Kevin. -[Gary] All right, Kevin.
[Vernon] We go from thinkin' we might lose our only diver,
to comin' pretty close to hitting our season goal.
If we can get one more decent day,
I think we're gonna pull this off.
[Kris] Come on, five. Come on, five.
Five, six, seven...
Eight. We punched eight.
8.1. That's not so bad.
[narrator] 8.1 ounces cashes in at 19 grand.
One of Reaper Nation's best hauls of the season,
despite the less than ideal sluice.
I don't wanna talk about losing gold.
All we can do right now is just get out there,
push hard and hope to God everything goes good for us.
If we would have gotten numbers like this all season, we'd be on easy street.
But it's really late, so we need one last big number.
It's tough, but I think we still have a chance.
[Shawn] Ten...
We're gonna hit 20.
There's 20. 22.
24.
25.3. Oh, yeah.
Hell, yeah.
Nice job, guys.
[narrator] 25.3 ounces is worth over $59,000.
And after a rough start to the season,
Mr. Gold's come through late
and smashed his 100-ounce goal.
[Shawn] Heck yeah. That's amazing.
We did it. We moved to Tomcod late and it's paid off.
And I proved my theory at the inland mine.
It's where the old timers worked.
It could be the biggest haul I've ever had in my career.
[Chris] Eight, ten...
-That's more gold than I've seen in any winter. -[Chris] Keep pouring.
Keep pouring.
[Jeff] Boom.
[Chris] 26.6, baby.
That's so good.
[narrator] 26.6 ounces banks the young gun 62 grand.
And the gold count leader stays well atop his perch.
-[Jeff] That's crazy, dude. That's good. -[Chris] Right.
[screams]
Wow, dude.
We just keep getting better and better.
It's still a long shot,
but I think we can end where we want to be.
My feet are dancing off the floor right now.
[laughs]
-I love it. -[Jeff] Let's keep going.
[Chris] Yeah, baby. What a feeling!
[narrator] Chris McCully continues climbing into the triple digits,
While Mr. Gold does the same.
Next time on Bering Sea Gold...
This is our last chance at everything right now.
The finish line is right there.
We're gonna finish this season strong.
This will be my last time on the Tomcod.
Tears of joy.
[Zeke] It's gonna be our last dive of the ice season.
I just wanna find a bunch of gold.
Rock and roll, dude.
[Vernon] Gary's grinding away
getting in that final foot.
[Gary groaning]
[Vernon] What we do is dangerous,
there's no getting around that.
[Gary] Holy [bleep].
We're on a pressure ridge.
It's dangerous, dark situation.
[Vernon] Get the [bleep] out of there!
[Chris] We're not gonna stop.
We can't stop.
Yay!
This could not get any better than that.