-[Gary groaning] -[Vernon] It's not easy.
I mean, you get the gold, but you wanna live to spend the gold.
♪♪ Time is running out ♪
[narrator] In just eight hours,
mining regulations will shut down the winter season,
marking the end of El Nino's wrath.
and the most challenging ice in Bering Sea history.
[man 1] The Tomcod was the worst I've ever seen it this winter.
[man 2] This is not good. There's ice jumbled up everywhere.
[man 3] There have been pressure ridges everywhere.
[man 4] If these blocks were to just, like, come loose,
they would plug up my dive hole, like, instantly.
[man 1 screaming]
[man 2] Equipment problems have been an absolute nightmare.
[man 1] I picked the saw up like this.
-[man 2] No, you did not. -You're gonna [bleep] piss me off.
[Vernon] I have never seen tensions with the crew like I saw this season.
I picked it up by the [bleep] handle.
-More than I've seen in any winter. -Ah!
[man] Despite everything, the gold was amazing.
My feet are dancing off the floor right now. [laughing]
[narrator] Now, on the season finale
of Bering Sea Gold...
♪♪ Got to get there ♪
♪♪ Get there somehow ♪
[narrator] ...the fleet is down to one last dive to hit their goals.
[man 1 speaking]
[man 2] Go get it, buddy.
[man 3 speaking]
[narrator] Tempting fate...
[man 1 speaking]
Be careful.
[man 1 speaking]
Are you good?
[narrator] ...before time...
Definitely gonna be that last little bit of cast.
[narrator] ...runs out.
Whatever gold we get, we get. That's it.
[man] And nothing's gonna stop me.
♪♪ Time is running out ♪
[man speaking]
Hey!
[man 1] Okay, this is it. Moment of truth.
Let's get to 5-0!
-[man 2] Let's get it, papa. -There it is.
Tears of joy, tears of joy.
-Whoo! -Are you ready?
[man] Let's do it.
It does not get any better than that.
♪♪ I know ♪
[Chris] We are at the end of our season.
Still got more energy in me. [grunts]
Me and Jeff. We're not gonna stop.
We can't stop. We're gonna finish this season strong.
[narrator] This winter, no one's been getting more gold than Chris McCully.
And, not surprisingly,
no one has set a higher goal
than Nome's resident young gun.
Lovely weather we're having. Let's get to it.
[man] We've got a new motor.
[narrator] The reigning ice mining champ
has done anything and everything he could to stay on top.
It's getting really hot.
[narrator] Paying to upgrade equipment...
[man speaking]
-Good day on the McCully claim. -[Chris] Yes, sir.
[narrator] ...bringing in top talent...
[Chris] We did really good on this round.
Good job, man.
[narrator] ...Even diving solo when he was left on his own.
[Chris] I'm gonna get my dive today, no matter what.
-That's more gold than I've seen in any winter. -Ah!
[narrator] He's already set a personal winter best for the season.
Now it's time, coming to the end...
I can see myself now getting better and better each day.
[narrator] And after hitting his lofty 100-ounce goal, with a week left,
he gambled, raising his stakes another 100 ounces.
We're gonna button things up, and nothing's gonna stop me.
This winter has been all about delivering for my new family.
Making this operation as profitable as possible.
I've got the ounces that I need
for my custom crawler for this summer.
And I'm already committed to paying for premium upgrades
to the boat that's gonna be launching it.
To pull that off,
I'm gonna need the biggest cleanout of the season.
I may have pressed my luck a bit too far.
We've been running shifts nonstop.
Now, I'm gonna go as long as I can to finish this off.
But we've been riding the equipment pretty hard.
Hopefully, it will hold on long enough.
We'll see.
[man] Hey, bud. So how's... how's that ground looking?
[Chris speaking]
Whoo! [laughing]
[sighs]
[Chris speaking]
[narrator] While the gold count leader gets rolling,
across the ice...
[Shawn] It's go time.
[narrator] Shawn Pomrenke is looking
for one last bite of the golden apple
to launch him into summer.
Extremely happy with moving to the Tomcod. It's pretty nice.
Tomcod paying just like it should.
Little mountains of gold.
Instead of digging dirt, we're digging ice.
[narrator] Mr. Gold's aiming to fund
the most ambitious project of his career.
[Shawn] I'm putting it all into this inland mine.
If this doesn't work out, I'll have to start over.
Stressful? A little bit.
[narrator] But starting with umineable ground on Tomcod.
This is not good.
There's ice jumbled up everywhere.
[narrator] His back's been up against the wall nearly all season.
Eastern end of 56, there's a lot of flat areas.
[narrator] He reluctantly made a deal to mine on Vernon's claim.
[Shawn] Oh, yeah!
[narrator] But the results on 56 weren't cutting.
[narrator] So he made a late, bold move,
relocating to his beloved home field...
[Shawn speaking]
[narrator] ...where he was rewarded
with the best gold all season.
Thirty-five.
[bleep]
[narrator] And he found just what he was looking for
at the Arctic gold inland mine.
Uncovering the trail of the original Nome gold rush.
Oh, yeah, there it is. Nice chunkers in there.
Yeah!
We hit paydirt, finally.
We wasted too much time.
We could have been sitting pretty by this time
if we would have moved sooner.
We can't feel too bad about it.
[Shawn] Hopefully find some patches.
Puddles of gold.
[narrator] Now, he'll need a giant final haul
to capitalize on his new discovery.
I got to get the inland up and running.
It'd be my last dive of the season.
I'll get suited up, get down there and find some more.
It looked like we were down for the count this season, but we come back huge.
The Tomcod's been helping fund the inland mine.
Now I know the treasure is there.
I got to hit the ground full force with equipment and a crew.
We just need another 25 ounces to keep everything on track.
The team's been grinding, and I'm gonna cap it off.
But with the clock ticking, that could be a long shot.
It's cold. Oh.
All buttoned up. Tighter than a duck's ass.
You got a copy, Shawn?
[Shawn] Yep. Good. Copy.
[man speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
from the bottom.
Nice. Good visibility, eh?
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
Nice. What are you seeing down there?
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
He likes what he's seeing down there.
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
Box sounds real nice. Hear those heavies
pouring through the diffuser right now.
That's the sound of money.
We're in it, boys.
Thank God for Tomcod.
[Vernon] It is April 15th.
Spring time in Nome.
Today is the last day.
Hopefully, I can get six to seven hours today.
[narrator] They may only have one diver,
but Team Adkison, has no intention of going easy
on winter's final day.
Since we started, we popped three or four holes around in this area,
and each one of them has been good.
[narrator] This winter, Vernon found himself as landlord, of the Bering Sea.
[man] Well, I got something here for you.
I like more, because I like the royalty.
[narrator] But life on the flat ice wasn't a cakewalk...
-[man 1] Move out of my way. -[man 2] I didn't say it.
[man 1] I picked it up by the [bleep] handle.
[man 2] You don't wanna listen to me.
I don't give a [bleep] what you do there.
[narrator] ...and proved too much for some.
Oh, man, it hurts so bad.
[Vernon] It blew out an eardrum.
[narrator] Gary Panos rose to the occasion...
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] All right. That's what I wanna hear, Gary.
[narrator] ...even when pushed to the edge.
[Gary groans]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon speaking]
[Gary speaking]
[Gary groans]
[Vernon] All right, we're ready.
[machine whirring]
[narrator] Now, despite all the misfires
-and with royalties from miners subleasing his claim... -Good.
[narrator] ...Vernon could be on the verge of reaching his winter goal.
[Vernon] Let's shake, rattle and roll.
This season could've gone off the rails.
But Gary's been a beast.
He's on fumes at this point.
But to pay for that new nitrox dive system,
I gotta push him one last time.
I just don't know what he's got left in his tank.
All right, Gary. Put some gold in the box.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Got you loud and clear.
Get after him, buddy.
-[Vernon] Gary, Gary. - [Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Hey, how's that ground looking?
[Gary speaking]
We've got this site marked as easy gold.
But it's not easy.
This is a lot of overburden right here.
So unfortunately, all that loose material
between the rocks has got gold in it.
But it's hard work moving all those damn rocks.
So how's the gold looking, Gary?
[Gary groans]
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah, I can see you moving
a hell of a lot of material, but I know there's gold in it.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Oh! Oh!
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] All right, Gary.
[Gary speaking]
All right.
We're in business.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] All right, already!
[narrator] Across the ice...
[man] This is our last chance at everything right now.
The finish line is right there.
We gotta hustle to make it work.
[narrator] ...Reaper Nation is hoping for an ice-cold miracle
on winter's final day.
[man] Just jump into work.
Andy, chip out the hole.
PJ, just start setting up the air compressor and everything.
This is our last push. We gotta make this work. Come on.
-[narrator] This season... -[man laughing]
[man speaking]
Yeah!
[narrator] ...the gold has been far from cold.
[man 1 groaning]
[man 1 speaking]
[man 2 speaking]
[narrator] But the sluice has been loose all winter.
[Kris] Damn, that's bad.
[narrator] And now Kris has his back up against the wall
as a big bill is coming due.
Whatever gold we get, we get. That's it.
There's no crying and there's no bitching and there's no nothing.
It's done.
Look, we have a real chance of hitting our goal this year.
Get pumped up, and let's get that gold.
It's our day to shine.
You know what? That was a good speech.
I know you guys felt it.
Hallelujah!
We can do it if we stick together and work hard.
Heigh-ho, off to work you go.
I need to hit my goal to pay for the upgrades on my crawler.
My plan for the summer is the crawler.
It's the centerpiece.
Without it, everything will fall apart.
Last dive of the season,
we've had a few problems with visibility
and the box freezing up,
so we really need to just hope for the best.
We finally got the sluice box patched up.
I'm gonna go deeper than we've been looking for harder gold.
It's risky because we have no time to waste.
I have to hit pay immediately.
[man] You're all good, bud.
Last dive. Go get it, buddy.
[Kris] Thank you. Last dive, baby.
A little tight.
What the [bleep] is this?
Holy [bleep]! It looks like a pressure ridge.
It goes all the way underneath the water.
It is [bleep] crazy-looking.
[man] Describe it.
[Kris] It's an iceberg underneath the water
that reaches 20 feet down.
[man] Is it touching the ground?
[Kris] No, it's not touching the ground.
It's like... There's nothing. You can walk underneath it.
[man] Well, when it comes to low tide, get the [bleep] out of there.
[Kris] Oh, yeah.
I bet the low tide pushes this right on the ground.
[narrator] Due to El Nino's fluctuating temperatures,
pressure ridges have been trouble above
and below the ice.
And as spring approaches,
they can become even more dangerous.
When the tide goes out,
the water level can recede several feet.
Suddenly, a giant pressure ridge
hanging from the surface
can be so close to the sea floor
there's no room to move.
And a diver can be trapped.
Definitely don't wanna be stuck under the ice with low tide, dude.
How's everything else?
-[Kris] Everything fine. -[man] How's the visibility?
[Kris] The visibility is not bad.
-Idle up the engine. -[man] On it.
Idled up.
[Kris speaking]
I'm going to work.
[man] Describe the bottom for me.
[Kris] I mean,
it's like a pea gravel...
I'm a foot down already.
Well, we're on gold.
That's a good thing to [bleep] hear.
[Kris] I'm on something kinda hot.
Woo-hoo!
[man] Okay, keep working.
[Kris] As soon as low-tide comes...
I think we get the [bleep] out of here, and we're done.
Let's end on a high note and not get [bleep] over.
Try to stay down there as long as possible, buddy. We need this gold.
[Kris] We're getting as much gold as we can before it's the end.
[Zeke] I'm hoping for the best for today.
It's gonna be our last dive.
The last dive of the ice season.
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff is trying to salvage
what he can from a tough season.
[Zeke] I have high hopes. We'll get her going.
[narrator] While the enthusiasm has been abundant this winter...
[Zeke speaking]
Hell, yeah, dude, I'm stoked on it.
[narrator] ...as have the discoveries...
Check out what we're looking at here with my the sonar map.
[narrator] The one thing largely missing has been the gold.
Ay, ay, ay. Oh, my gosh.
I don't really know what to say.
[narrator] As a result...
Captain Zeke's still far from hitting his winter goal.
[Zeke] You just got to keep a good attitude
and you don't ever find gold if you're in a bad mood.
[laughing]
I was really hoping I could get enough ounces to outfit my yurt
to be comfortable for my wife and kid,
but at this point, I don't know if I'm gonna pull that off.
All we can do is keep pushing.
If I can get just three more ounces,
then I'll at least be at break even.
So I'm gonna try to clear out this hole before we call it.
Yep, looking good.
[Zeke] You got me on comms?
[man speaking]
Where'd he go, Oscar?
Where'd he go?
How you doing down there, Zeke?
-I'm waiting for the pumps. - [man] Right on, I'll run 'em up.
How does that suction feel?
[Zeke speaking]
[man] Okay. Roger.
How's it looking down there, dude?
[Zeke speaking]
[man] Yep. Roger that.
This is the last hole.
Move as much dirt as we can.
At this point, as far we can see, even if it gets us an ounce or two
that we scratch for, it's gonna be worth those hours.
[Zeke speaking]
Oh, yeah.
[man] Rock and roll, dude.
[Zeke speaking]
Everything's going great.
[narrator] Across the ice...
[Shawn speaking]
[man laughing]
[Shawn speaking]
Oh!
Looking good down there, eh?
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
[narrator] ...after nearly six hours,
Mr. Gold is making his last dive count
in the final moments of winter.
[Shawn speaking]
[man speaking]
[Shawn speaking]
All right. Throttling down.
[Shawn] Whoo!
What a way to end it.
The best gold I've seen this season.
And combined with all the material the boys have been getting,
I couldn't ask for anything better.
Now it just has to be enough to keep inland going into summer.
The dive went good.
Really good. Seeing lots of gold.
I don't know if I can get my fat ass out of this suit.
[all laughing]
[narrator] As the first member of the fleet prepares to leave the ice...
five miles east...
[man] Okay... We're getting to the shallower time,
for low tide, so just be careful and keep your eye on it.
[Kris] It's very hard to see gold like this.
[narrator] The final hours of winter mining quickly descend on Nome.
And so too does the pressure ridge
above Kris Kelly.
[Kris speaking]
[narrator] As the tide reaches its lowest point,
the space between the pressure ridge and the sea floor
has shrunk significantly,
leaving dangerously little room to move.
And in the tight quarters,
the ground that's been kicked up can't filter out,
adding murky visibility to the mix.
[Kris] This is it. [bleep].
Ice, low tide came down and turning it into a dangerous dark situation.
I'm headed up.
All right, J, you coming up?
[Kris] I want to get the [indistinct] down
and get the [bleep] out of here.
All right, buddy. You did a good job.
[Kris] We got on great gold, but with that pressure ridge
bearing down on me, there was no way to keep going.
I wanted to do more,
but the Bering Sea can be a bitch when it wants to.
Turn off the engine, start packing everything up.
We're done for the year. This is it.
Hopefully, there will be a big surprise on this scale
and we hit our goal
or at least come close.
We're done for the season. Thank God!
[Gary groaning]
Damn!
[continues groaning]
Gary's down there
grinding away...
getting in that final push.
It's a tough material because there's so many rocks that are tightly packed.
But, um, but he's moving it.
[narrator] At the end of an exhausting season,
Gary Panos is still on the gold.
[Gary groans]
[Vernon] He's getting tired.
And he's getting frustrated.
[Gary groaning]
Gary's a warrior, but he's just about out of gas.
I think he's reached his limit.
[Gary] Ah, damn it!
[groans]
What we do is dangerous.
There's no getting around that.
But there's a... there's a time you gotta know when to call it.
Good job.
I mean, you get the gold, but you wanna live to spend the gold.
And so, um--
Hey, Gary.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] Yeah, we're gonna have to call it.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] We'll do a cleanup, and then the tale will be told.
[Gary laughs]
[Gary speaking]
This season's been a first class [bleep].
But, you know, we persevere.
Gary did good today.
He did a little over five hours.
That's respectable.
[Gary speaking]
[Vernon] That's ice mining, that's Nome.
We call this place Malfunction Junction.
It's not for the weak of heart.
Let me tell you that.
[narrator] As exhaustion knocks out Vernon's squad,
across the claim...
[Zeke] I am satisfied, uh, with my dive.
We ended on a high note.
[man 2] Yeah, that sounds great.
You know, I'm gonna run the pumps down.
And, uh, pull the tether up.
[Zeke] Okay, sounds good. I'll head on up.
Sounds good.
[narrator] Zeke Tenhoff ends his hard fought push to break even.
[Zeke] We tapped out the rest of that hole.
I think that's as good as we're gonna be able to do for the last day.
Hopefully, we have a good haul,
and we can end this season in the black.
[narrator] Time is almost up.
And there's still one team left on the ice.
[Chris indistinct over radio]
[man over radio] Yeah, man.
[narrator] Now, over six hours on the gold,
Chris McCully is giving it everything he has,
as the clock counts down.
[Chris speaking]
[man] Sounds good to me, bud.
It's good to know that all this grinding is paying off.
[Chris speaking]
-What's up? -[Chris speaking]
-All right. -[Chris speaking]
[motor shuts down]
Are you good?
[Chris speaking]
- Whoo! -[man] Wait, you found a nugget?
[Chris speaking]
Wow!
-Hey! -[Chris whooping]
[Chris] A [bleep] nugget! Yahoo!
[man] All right, I'll start grabbing your umbilical.
[shouting exultantly]
[man] Whoa! What the... [bleep]. Crazy!
This could not get any better than that, dude.
Wow. [bleep]
I made it through all of that problems,
all the breakdowns, all the crew issues,
and now, bam! At the end of my season,
the gold gods gave me a nugget, dude.
That's what they treat you.
Yes! I couldn't be happier, dude. That's...
I'm so happy. Like...
Wow, what a way to finish the last dive of the season.
Wow.
Shimmering shine.
It's just all over the plate.
We'll see how we did on the scale.
But one thing is for sure that this team was relentless to the bitter end.
Wow.
We really crushed it hard. Got a lot of gold in the box,
and could not get any better than this.
That's how you end your season, baby! Yeah!
[narrator] And now, join us for the Bering Sea Gold End of Season Awards.
In the category of Best Argument
Involving the Use of a Chainsaw, goes to
Gary Panos and Chris Numink.
I picked the saw up like this.
-[Gary] No, you did not. -You're gonna [bleep] piss me off!
[narrator] The award for Shortest Time Under The Ice this season, goes to...
And we have a repeat winner.
It's Chris Numink...
[Chris exclaims]
[narrator] ...who logged one extremely brief dive before busting an eardrum.
Oh, man, it hurts so bad.
[narrator] And finally, in the category of Biggest Stretch Of The Truth,
the award goes to
Kris Kelly...
We're gonna come up with the money.
[narrator] ...for telling the guy building his crawler
that there'd be no issue paying for it...
[Kris grunts]
Everything is working good.
[narrator] ...when, in actuality, there was a tremendous issue.
Shut the [bleep] up.
[narrator] Thanks for watching.
[narrator] Throughout Nome...
Doing the last clean up. Everything's off the ice.
The last thing to do is clean the gold.
-[man 1] Looks like we got full carpets. -[Shawn] [bleep] heavy.
[narrator] The fleet's readying their final weigh outs.
Finally, the season is done.
[man] The last couple of scoops are the good ones.
-[Chris] Look at that. Man. -[man] Wow.
-Are you ready? -Let's do it.
[Zeke] Quick and dirty clean up.
We got an ounce. We got one ounce, we got 1.3.
Two ounces.
Two point five.
Two point...
[reading aloud]
[narrator] 2.77 ounces is worth over $6,400,
bringing Zeke's final season total to 15 and a half ounces,
banking over 36 grand.
I'm ready to haul all this gear off the ice.
It was a rough season,
and I didn't get as much gold as I needed to for my family.
But the good news is, is that we did get enough gold to keep going until summer.
It just makes me wanna work that much harder going forward.
[Kris] Okay. Four ounces, people.
Five.
Six.
There's seven. Okay, we got over eight.
Ten.
That's a little bit of a pile of gold. Okay.
It's 11.5.
I'm in a better mood.
[narrator] 11.5 ounces is worth over 26 grand,
bringing Kris's season total
to 39.83 ounces, worth over...
$93,000.
Short of his season goal, but a strong showing in the end.
This is what we got, and to be honest with you, that's not that bad.
The ice mining season was a giant pain in the ass
and frustrating, too, because we were on great gold.
But a bunch of things kept us from reaching our full potential.
I'm gonna have to smooth things over
to make sure we still get our crawler done.
If I can pull that off, I know I'll have a huge summer.
[Shawn] Thirteen...
Twenty.
Twenty-three eight.
It's beautiful.
Man. Man.
Oh, we gonna make 30? No.
Not quite.
Twenty-nine.
[bleep] Yeah.
[narrator] 29.2 ounces rings in at $68,000.
Yes.
[narrator] Bringing Mister Gold's total haul to 140.3 ounces.
cashing out at a whopping $328,000.
Twenty-nine, that ain't bad.
That will get us to summer.
-Which is right around the corner. -Yep.
[Shawn] The season started looking like a disaster,
but we come on huge in the end.
Now it's time to hit it hard on the inland mine.
And from what I saw out there, this could be life-changing.
[man] Blood, sweat, only a few tears.
[sighs deeply]
Tears of joy. Tears of joy.
[chuckling]
[Vernon] Four. Five.
Six.
Seven.
Here we go with ten.
Eleven point four eight.
And that ain't no bull [bleep.]
[narrator] 11.4 ounces banks the salty skipper over $26,000,
and with royalties, brings his final season haul
to 84 ounces.
Worth nearly 200 grand.
And Vernon Adkison hits his goal right at the finish line.
[Vernon] Pretty good for the last hole.
You know, hey, I'll take it.
There were some tough moments, but this season was a winner.
Fifty-six made me the royalty king of Nome,
and Gary came through huge for us on the ice.
I can pay out the nitrox system,
and get that mother lode in deep water this summer.
I've never been able to reach it, until now. I can't wait.
Yeah. All right.
I couldn't have done it without you, buddy.
[Chris] Ah, let's go. Let's do it. Here we go.
[man] One two three, five six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Twelve, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22.
[in high voice] 25... [exclaims] 32.
Oh! 34!
-[shrieks] -Damn.
-[man] Let's get to 5-0. -Let's get it, papa.
-[man clapping] -Wow.
And the nugget, all together...
Bam!
Wow!
Ounces, baby! Whoo!
[narrator] 58 ounces nabs the young gun $136,000.
[Chris whooping]
[narrator] And it grows his final total
to a monstrous 213 ounces, worth...
Wait for it.
A cool half a million dollars.
Bam.
[narrator] And Chris McCully's paid for the crawler, the upgrades,
and is once again the winter gold count champ.
-Cool. -Just trust the process.
-Trust the process. -Yeah. [chuckling]
I don't know what to say, but this season was insane.
Over 200 ounces. Are you kidding me?
I took a big gamble, and I got what I wanted and more.
I can't wait to kill it this summer,
and I can't wait to keep providing for my family.
That's all that matters to me.
Without you and Wilson, I...
I appreciate you guys.
Like 100 point blank percent.
That's how you [bleep] end the season, baby.
Whoo!
[narrator] Chris McCully emerges the champion.
Mr. Gold rallies big in the final days,
and Vernon Adkison completes the golden trifecta.
For the miners...
-Whoo! -[narrator.] ...the journey continues in summer.
[Chris] I've got cheese.
Got 'em. Bam!
[men exclaiming]
-[whooping] -[man laughing]