Nome, alaska.
In the winter,
It's already one of the coldest places to find gold.
And today...
The temperatures have plummeted
To the lowest reading of the season,
Bringing even more challenges onto the ice-mining battlefield.
Captions by vitac www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
So for captain shawn pomrenke...
You have to improvise.
You have to be a macgyver out here.
Sometimes you don't have all the stuff you need,
So you improvise.
...That means before donning his wetsuit,
It's time to put on his thinking cap
And put together something he hopes will defeat mother nature.
Built a home-built steamer.
We're definitely gonna make some steam here today.
Very hot on the end here.
But we got ourselves a little problem.
We're following a really nice vein of gold
Into the frozen dirt.
It's frozen, and you can't get the gold out from underneath it.
So right now, I'm gonna get the steam going.
We're gonna try thawing the ground to get to the gold.
Last time I tapped into the hottest pay streak
I found all winter.
Problem is it ran straight into the frozen ground.
It can happen up here in nome. It gets that cold.
So I had to get a little creative.
Got the steam hose here.
Need special hose for steaming.
I built a steam gun.
I had a dive heater that makes hot water for a diver.
I figured, hell, this should work
For thawing ground with steam.
Yeah, I think that's a good plan,
A good idea, you know?
I've never tried it before.
I know steam's kind of like a big bomb.
If you get it plugged and don't have a place
For it to go, it'll go boom.
It may or may not work.
Still short the ounces he needs
For the down payment on the tomcod claim,
Shawn's rolling the dice to tap into
What he believes is a path to riches.
Gold mining's a risk.
When it's this cold out, it makes the job even tougher.
I mean, the risks get greater and greater,
But you're not gonna get rich by playing it safe.
Okay, got water.
I got power. Let's make some steam,
It's gonna get crazy...
If it works.
It could go boom.
Hopefully it just goes "wssshkkkk!"
To make steam, shawn's using a gas-fired furnace
To boil water inside a tank.
But to keep the steam from turning back into water
On its journey to the sea floor,
The temperature must be raised substantially,
Heightening the chance for the system to,
As shawn put it, go boom.
Here you go. Let's see.
Come on, girl.
Ah-ha-ha-ha!
Seems to be working just fine.
Let's get diving.
The steam gun's working on top of the ice,
But now the real test will be if it works under water.
This works, we're gonna be in the gold.
Will the steam gun thaw the ground,
Or am I just a crazy person
Running around with a dangerous machine?
We'll see.
Go down and check out that steam and see what it'll do.
Okay.
On the bottom.
All right, we're gonna fire it up.
Give us just a second.
If this thing here works the way we think it's gonna work,
Oh, man, this is big.
Uh-oh.
I don't have nothing coming out down here.
Houston, we have a problem.
It's already falling apart.
Okay, give me just a second.
30 feet down, the cold ocean is turning
Shawn's steam back into water,
Forcing his team to turn up the heat even more.
How's that working for you, shawn?
Yeah!
Yes.
Yeah.
So is that steam able to melt
That gold out of the ground or what?
-Finally. -Yee-haw!
As shawn works to melt away
The frozen sea floor,
15 miles east...
Minus-20 right now. Bloody cold out.
...The kellys are struggling just to get started
In the frigid conditions.
Our ice hole froze up closed so much
That I've lost half my hole.
If I have an emergency ascent, I'm
'cause I'm not getting out of that hole.
Not fast, anyways.
It's gonna be a great day today.
I know we're gonna get a lot of gold today.
We just got to get in the water.
But kris has, you guessed it,
A plan to beat the cold.
It's the coldest day of the year.
Humans shouldn't be in conditions like this.
Seals maybe, but not humans.
Each diver's gonna risk freezing his ass off
If it takes too long.
So my plan is for three of us andy, myself, and shaunna
To have short dives today.
Even though that they're short dives,
We're still gonna make a lot of gold today.
The quick dives should get the kellys closer
To the ounces they need
To rent the boat of their dreams this summer.
But...
It's gonna suck.
...Not everyone is warming up to the idea.
It's negative-20. You got to have tough skin.
We got to press hard right now and make this happen.
-Hotter water. -Turtle!
Turn it up a little bit then.
You like that?
Okay.
With temperatures getting this low,
Things can get pretty crazy.
So turtle's gonna be watching the temperature
And watching the dive hole.
It's so cold out right now, the dive hole's already
Beginning to freeze over, and none of these machines
Are built for this kind of temperature.
It's a show.
Okay, no matter what, just keep your eye on your exit.
You know the rules.
For a couple of minutes there, I didn't think
He was gonna get underneath the water.
You okay?
Are you seeing any gold at all?
I haven't seen any yet.
I'm still moving around, though.
Just keep going I go.
Any day could be our last, you know,
'cause we're getting to the end of the season now.
Hopefully andy puts us on big gold right now.
Right there at the end of my finger.
Looks nice, doesn't it?
Really good gold.
-Okay, go to work. -Okay.
Finally everything's running smooth again.
Just got to put some more hours in,
And this could turn out to be a pretty good season.
How much gold do you think you got?
That's why you get paid the big bucks.
Yeah, we're gonna look into that.
I don't know what the is wrong with the hot water.
I'm sick of that hot water.
The hot water's on right now. It's working.
How would you know?
I can see the steam coming out of there, the smoke,
That doesn't that just means the exhaust is working.
Yeah, it means the heater's going.
Turtle!
Andy's working hard down there. We really got to
Pull him in! Pull him in!
God!
pull him in! Pull him in!
Are you okay?
I just lost all air on my way back to
Well, try not to die, but I'm glad you had
Your escape route planned.
Don't take your mask off when you're near the hole.
Yeah, I had no breath,
See how small this hole is? You can crawl back in.
My fat ass can't get I got my arms on the thing.
The what happens if you fall in, though?
Well, stop pulling me, ass
I'm glad you're okay.
I lost air pressure.
And then I'm trying to shimmy through this
How far were you from the hole?
20 feet.
Yeah, when the water doesn't go hot,
It freezes the reg.
Oh, man.
The hot-water system not only pumps hot water
To andy's suit, it also keeps the whole system from freezing.
No, the mask is not okay.
When the hot water stops,
The mask will freeze completely shut,
And you won't get any air underneath the water.
Now, that's scary.
This cold weather is bad news on everything.
It's coming. It's turning on.
No, I know. You're getting
Just relax. , I don't know.
And that hole is too small.
It really is, dude.
Hopefully nothing else breaks down.
Nothing's gonna break. Nothing's broken right now.
We're just having small, little complications.
me.
Hell, yeah. That's scary as hell.
Super anxious now.
I'm not gonna risk my life and go down like that.
It looks like the hot-water situation
Has scared andy and shaunna.
Neither of them are gonna dive any more today,
Which means I only have one option right now
To try to keep us on gold and get hours on the box.
Yeah, I left the nozzle on some good stuff.
Okay, good.
Did you find where andy left off?
Yeah.
-Are you still seeing gold? -I'm seeing gold.
Okay, get to work.
Five miles west...
Yeah, this is the dive hole.
Just clearing out the ice.
Looks good? -Yeah.
This was a new hole.
We're out here a little bit deeper.
We think we're on that ancient beach line right now,
And if that's the case,
Then there's most likely some gold down there.
Captain vernon adkison is rolling the ice.
We're following this pay streak,
And it's leading us further and further out.
The further out we go, the richer it gets.
Today, we're moving camp nearly a mile
Onto some seriously thin ice.
It's gonna be dangerous,
But I think we're getting close to the mother lode.
Time's a wasting. The season's getting real short.
We need serious gold right now.
To pay for a winning bid on claim 16,
Vernon needs 200 ounces,
But so far he's nowhere near his goal.
So the captain's hoping
That today's risky bet will be a game changer.
We'll get in the water just as quick as we possibly can.
Nice and tight? Got your neck in, yeah?
Yep, good.
Let's see what happens.
If the gold gods are with us,
We'll be rolling in the dough here before the night is over.
All right, here we go.
How's it looking, gary?
He's working sand.
I mean, now I don't see how that's gonna work.
I'm seeing some cobble in the sand,
So maybe he don't have to go down too far.
Yeah, I can't tell how much sand,
But I'm seeing some cobble under it.
Yes.
All right. I think I'm starting to wake up a little bit now.
Come on.
Yeah.
Ooh. Ooh!
Nice little dip.
Oh, boy!
All right-a-rooney.
Ah, we're on the gold, you guys. Whoo!
Yeah!
We'll make a season.
This is...
This is gold porn, baby!
Yeah, gold porn.
Anyway, so far, it's looking good.
Probably ancient, ancient clay.
Oh, yeah!
That's set up hard.
Gold lays right on top of that.
Something about an ice chunk.
Oh, that ain't good.
No.
Okay, they're adjusting your water.
Ah.
Ah, he's got a plug.
Agh!
Ah! Ah!
We just lost prime. We just lost prime.
Oh,
Shut down the engine.
Shut down the engine!
Come on up, gary. We're shutting down the engine.
Pull the umbilical!
He's coming up.
Pull the umbilical!
Ahhhh!
Pull the umbilical!
He's coming up.
Pull the umbilical!
Ahhhh!
Oh, boy.
That big blue hose over there,
That's where the water to the pump comes from.
And I think it sucked some sludge up into the pump,
And the pump lost prime.
Ah, this damn cold.
Pump clogged up with ice.
That means no suction, no hot water to the diver.
Oh, my god. My face is froze!
Damn.
I was worried today was gonna be rough.
It seems my premonition was right on the money.
Yeah, we don't have any water flow.
We can't run the pump dry.
It will destroy it pretty quickly.
Yeah, we damn near blew the main engine
Because we didn't have cooling water.
It all froze up.
Just keep going. Just keep going.
Good job. Yeah!
Lucky for us, we found there was slush
In the suction hose.
We'll be able to get that cleared out.
It could have been far worse for the equipment
And, of course, for gary, also.
Hey, gary, is it primed?
All right. Well, let's start it back up.
All right, now it's going.
Now everything's flowing. The water is hot.
The pump is running,
Hopefully this fix will hold up,
But there's no reason why it can't happen again.
The temperature only gets lower the later would go in the day.
We're playing with fire, or ice, I suppose.
Gary, get down there, get that gold.
Suit up!
But we got no choice. We got to get in it.
We got to get that gold today.
All right! Awesome!
Yeah, the water is good.
How's it looking, gary?
All right, sweet.
Okay, he's got suction. He's got suction.
Man, it's sucking like a sun of a gun.
I'm loving it. Oh, yeah.
That's some suction.
And it it sucks, and in a good way.
Captain shawn pomrenke is using
A potentially explosive steam generator,
And so far the only thing that's been explosive...
...Is the amount of gold piling up in the box.
I just know that if we blow up,
I'm doing it with a full stomach.
I'll make a big mess.
Like a hot knife through butter.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, it's a lot more work doing it this way,
But, I mean, hell, we're getting gold.
Yeah, the ice is mixed in with the gravel, though.
That much frozen gravel,
That much gold.
A lot of sand underneath it.
Sand's all gone, so you can kind of undermine it, go and...
She left behind a whole bunch of gold.
Man, might have to take her out to dinner.
Sounds like you're on really good gold down there.
Really good.
Right on, man. Great news.
Might be. It might be.
Uh-oh.
All right, I'll take a look at it.
I don't know what's going on.
Come on.
How's that working for you, shawn?
It's nothing.
You might want to get up here quick, shawn.
Oh,
There's steam coming everywhere.
All right, I'm on my way up.
Watch it! She's gonna blow!
Yeah, you better get up here.
Looks like it's about to blow.
Oh,
On the trail of frozen gold,
Shawn pomrenke is getting hot.
Watch it! She's gonna blow!
It looks like that thing's about to blow.
I just I shut it off because it just steaming everywhere.
It was it was...
Well, it is steam. It's like a bomb.
Yeah, well, and I was confused.
I didn't know pretty much what to do.
And I just turned it off.
Well, let's check it out and see what's going on here.
Got hot. Think it blew the whole ring out?
Cooked it out? Melted it out, I think.
-Melted that all apart. -Yeah.
Equipment failure has brought
Shawn's steamy mining session to a halt,
But, hey, it could happen to any miner.
Before she blew, the steamer was working just fine.
Ah-ha-ha-ha!
At least we know that that we can pull another card
Out of our pocket, and it'll work.
Time to clean some gold.
Yeah, it's looks really, really, really good.
Oh, it was working great.
I was able to "skskkk!" shove it into the sand
Underneath that frozen ground,
And then I was able to come in behind it
And "skskkk!"
Pretty bummed we got cut short,
But this thing is a game changer.
Can't wait to get it fixed up and back on the gold.
We'll do it again.
How's it looking down there? You seeing any gold?
Despite a dicey water heater,
Kris kelly's braving the coldest day of the season,
And three hours into his dive...
...He's keeping the fighting irish in the game.
Come on up. You had a good dive, good day today.
Okay. I'm coming up.
Did a good job.
Hey, tired as hell.
We got good gold, but this sucks.
Today was the coldest day of the year,
But we got great gold.
Andy and shaunna tapped out today,
But with me being the captain, I don't have that option.
Sometimes being the captain means being
The stupidest one on the team, but that pays.
I'm living proof.
Today was a great day, you know?
Andy made it out of a bad problem
Without any problems.
So let's just keep going with what we're doing,
And let's not stop till we get 50 ounces.
With gold mining, hey, baby, it don't come easy,
It's not for the faint of heart
Because it's discouraging as hell.
But what we do it breaks, we fix it.
We keep on pushing, and right now,
This is the result of that perseverance.
After season-low temperatures
Nearly shut down their operation...
...Vernon adkison's crew is heating up.
Did I hear you say you're whooping ass?
Yeah, brother!
Get 'er done!
O.G. Come through again.
I got a good team here.
I'm proud of these guys.
Hello, everybody.
Today, we'll be talking about freeze ups
On "secrets underneath the ice with kris kelly."
Freeze ups.
Quickest way to die underneath the ocean
Is you can't breathe.
I don't think so, okay?
So that's the quickest way to die.
A freeze up is where ice blocks your air.
Water comes out when you breathe,
Condensation from your breath.
So that little bit of water can technically freeze
And cut off your air system.
Isn't that ?
There's a couple of different places you can get freeze ups
At the regulator,
At the the air comes in.
What do you call that piece at the back
Of the end of it where the air comes out?
The left side of the regulator?
I don't know. I'm not an instructor.
Eric, I am your father.
We're out here. It's 20 below.
Trying to get burgers cooked.
Not looking too well.
These are all frozen.
What do I expect out here, huh?
Somebody's having five-stack, you know what I mean?
How does this barbecue work in minus 20?
Not very well.
It could take me an hour to cook these burgers.
Uh-oh.
This has turned into a big mess.
That one pound of gross
We'll call this one andy's burger.
Oh, well, we can't worry about those anymore.
I just have to worry about this one right here.
This one's shaunna's right here.
I don't know if they're ready to eat yet.
They look pretty raw still.
Can't have a burger on the ice without cheese.
The cheese isn't even melting.
Ooh. There it is.
I don't even know if it's cooked.
All charged up now with the bering sea burger.
Hell, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
In nome...
Damn hot-water heater.
That thing is a pile of crap.
Yes, I was freezing my nuts off.
I don't know if turtle wasn't hitting
The reset button or what, but...
...After the air was nearly taken out
Of their season, kris led by example.
Still looks like pretty good gold, though.
And now the captain will find out
If the icy dive was worth it.
A little emergency ascent
That's definitely not gonna stop us.
-Nope. -It did scare shaunna.
I don't really care about that. We're getting gold.
Let's get this cleaned out, get it dried up,
And get it on the scale.
Let's see what we got.
Come on, baby.
10 ounces would be nice, I'm not gonna say it wouldn't.
Come on, 10 ounces.
2 ounces.
-That's 1 ounce. -Oh, yeah, 1 ounce.
-Shoot. -Calm down.
Okay, now we're at 3...
4, 5.
Come on, there's no 10 ounces.
Agh! -Got one left.
Over 7 ounces. -Oh, yeah, over 7 ounces.
-That's still good, man. -Wow.
7.17 ounces is worth over $11,000.
So right now, every single day,
We keep grinding, getting closer and closer.
I have no doubt that we're gonna make it our 50 ounces
And get the...Next summer.
We keep going on track, and hopefully we can work out
All the bugs and hopefully everything gets better for us.
Be positive. Everything will work out.
I am being positive.
And positively wanting more gold.
Out on the ice...
I'm looking to buy the track.
It's coming up on the lease. Hell, I've already bid on it.
I need the gold to pay for it.
And so it's not gonna be too long before I got to come up
With some serious cash if I want this lease.
And then the other part of it is I got to know
That the damn lease is worth buying.
...It's down to the wire as vernon adkison faces off
With his gold scale.
Let's weight this.
This one's got some weight to it.
I think we've done a little better.
This is the way I love to do my banking.
It's coming up on 2.
3.
4, 5.
There's 9.
10.
Almost 11 ounces. 10.94.
That's the best one we've had so far.
10.94 ounces will put over $17,000
In vernon's war chest.
That speaks very powerfully to me.
I think jenny brings us luck.
-Hell, yeah. -Hell, yeah.
It was risky as hell going out on the ice this far,
But gold mining is a risky business,
No getting around it.
But based on the payout, it's been worth it.
Now I know what 16 is all about.
I'm satisfied this claim is loaded with gold.
That's a pretty good-looking gold.
There's some chunky stuff in there.
This is what we've been working for.
If we'd have done that on those other three cleanups,
We'd be looking pretty good right now.
But as it is, we're behind the curve,
But we're heading in the right direction.
So now what we need to do is just get down there
And get some more.
Back in nome...
It's a decent-looking pile.
We got into some frozen ground,
Come up with a way to thaw it.
...After steam-blasting his way
Through a frozen pay streak,
Mr. Gold is ready to see just how hot it was.
I mean, we got out there,
Melted the o-rings on the heater,
But we'll get it tuned in.
Here we go.
3.
6.
9.
15.
We hit 20.
25.95.
Another good cleanup.
The previously frozen 25.95 ounces
Are worth over $41,000 in cold, hard cash.
That'll definitely help make a payment on the claim.
That gold's locked into that ice,
But we're blasting it free and getting it.
It's working. We're getting it.
Every cleanup, we get a little bit closer,
But I don't want to jinx it.
Tomcod's within my reach,
But I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched.
It's getting tough out there.
And as it comes to an end, it's only gonna get tougher.
You just got to keep coming up with new ways
To get the gold that's there.
It's gonna be a battle to the bitter end.
Yeah. We'll get there.
Tomcod's going to be mine.
Shawn racks up the gold,