[Dustin Hurt] This [bleep] water's coming up!
I never thought I would ever see anything like this.
I thought I had seen all the flashfloods at McKinley.
I thought I'd seen it all.
This is by far...
It came up! It just came up right now!
[Kayla Johanson] Tie off the dredge.
[Paul Richardson] I'm [bleep] trying!
This ain't showing any kind of stopping,
and it's still raising.
[Dustin] Let's [bleep] go now!
This is prime time to die here.
[James Hamm] A tidal wave could come at any time!
We're almost stuck.
Man, it's going over the boardwalk right now.
Get out! We gotta go!
Looks sketchy, doesn't it?
Don't fall, don't die.
Oh, dear heavenly father.
[James] Look out!
[Kayla] We have to find gold.
I think it's starting to weigh on everyone.
[Dustin] Let's get this party started.
[Kayla] Dustin fired Wes.
[Dustin] About everything. About the whole deal.
[Carlos Minor] What's going on?
Is Wes coming back?
He's strongarmed right now, I don't like that.
I've got to get to bedrock.
Whoo! Time to dive!
[Kayla] Hey, that's crazy.
That's the layer that's got the gold in it.
[James] If you can get underneath that boulder,
there's gonna be gold under it.
[Wes Richardson] Challenge accepted!
Whoo-hoo!
I'm on a hot patch.
[James] Are you kidding me?
Holy moly!
[Carlos] Dustin took off, so, they needed me back.
And I'm curious to know what the hell's going on.
[narrator] Deep in the Alaskan wilderness,
crew boss, Dustin Hurt, is MIA.
Forcing marine veteran, Carlos Minor,
to rush back to Nugget Creek.
[Carlos] I had to stay home with the baby.
Feel a little bit guilty about it.
I shouldn't because family comes first.
[James] Hey, dude, welcome back!
Carlos is back now,
but now you guys are missing Dustin.
It's a tough situation to be in.
If the leader of a crew just ups and quits
and walks away...
- [James] Yep. You missed an ordeal yesterday. - Uh...
[narrator] This season...
I don't think we're gonna go back to McKinley this year.
[narrator] ...Dustin took a huge gamble
on a remote new claim...
Bigger, better gold.
Good gold, but nobody can get to it.
Nobody? That sounds like us.
[narrator] ...further into wild Alaska
than most would dare.
Whoo-hoo!
The water here is steeper
than anything we've ever dug ever.
It's a bear!
It seems like McKinley on steroids.
All that experience in the past
is gonna come to bear right now.
...Three, go!
- Whoo-hoo! - [group laughing]
[narrator] He has battled to keep his operation afloat.
[Carlos] I don't think it's gonna have the power to take it up, dude.
I don't need that right now.
Let's fail before you tell me it's not gonna work, all right?
- [narrator] But a constant barrage of bad luck... - [Dustin] [bleep]!
You can't put this on TV.
- [narrator] ...and setbacks... - [rocks falling]
- [Dustin] Look out! Look out, look out! - [Kayla] [bleep]!
What have you gotten yourself into?
[Dustin] It's summer and there's still 20 feet of snow.
Right now, it feels like this place is out of my league.
[Wes] You all right?
[Dustin] Well, I'm either having a [bleep] panic attack or a heart attack.
[narrator] ...pushed him...
[Wes] We just can't get anything out without our generator running.
[narrator] ...to his breaking point.
[Dustin] Why are you so mad?
I'm just trying to help.
[Wes] You just come over, took over what I was doing.
You know...
He cracked under pressure.
I can't imagine what's going on in Dustin's head,
and, man, as a leader, don't abandon your crew.
[narrator] Without a leader,
the entire crew risks failure.
[Carlos] This is the reality,
it's too frickin' late in the season...
...for us to go get jobs.
It's too late in the season for us to just say, "Stop."
What can we do today to go forward?
I think we should just go up there and keep working.
We need to get in the water, man.
We need to move all those frickin' rocks that's down there.
- [Wes] Mmm-hmm. - [Carlos] Three men can frickin' dredge.
Three men can find gold.
- It sounds like we have a plan for today. - [James] Yep.
You guys are gonna work on that,
- if you need help, you just let us know. - [Wes] All right.
[Kayla] And I'm gonna go get in the water.
- Hopefully, we can punch through that clay layer. - [Paul] Yeah.
I hope you get some good gold out of that because...
[Carlos] I hope you guys get gold.
- [Paul] Let's do that. - Let's get it done.
[Wes] Sounds like a plan, all right, let's do it.
[Carlos] If it doesn't break your legs...
...and if it doesn't break your back, man,
it'll surely break your spirit.
We need to keep our spirits high, man.
We need to feed each other some frickin' good medicine, man.
If they start to fall apart,
then this is, this is not gonna happen.
[narrator] Over halfway through their season,
and barely any gold to show for all the backbreaking work,
their future at Nugget Creek hangs by a thread.
We have to find gold.
If we don't find gold this year,
I don't know that I can come back for a third year
just to follow someone on blind faith.
I think it's starting to weigh on everyone.
I know it's definitely starting to weigh on the other crew.
They're having a lot of issues right now.
Everybody is just toast.
Totally exhausted.
They're better be good gold here
with how much work we've put into this site,
that's all I can say.
[narrator] Since striking gold six weeks ago...
- [Kayla] I got gold already! - [Carlos] Bingo.
[narrator] ...the battle to set up their most
remote dive site ever...
It's been such a pain in the ass to get access.
I think we can get a walkway fairly quick.
[narrator] ...pushed Kayla's crew to their limits.
There ain't nothing easy about this.
[Kayla] There's nothing easy about anything we're doing.
[narrator] But their last dive
brought the first glimmers of hope.
[Kayla] Scott, look at this. Come here, hurry.
[Scott Allen] [bleep] clay layer.
That locked in gold like a [bleep] vice, wasn't it?
[narrator] ...and the promise of chunky nuggets
as they close in on bedrock.
[Kayla] I saw a couple little flakes.
[Paul] Oh, [bleep]
It's a good sign that there could be
a lot better stuff waiting down below.
[Scott] Good to go?
Good luck down there.
Down into the darkness she goes.
How's it looking or not really looking down there, Kayla?
[Kayla] It looks terrible.
Zero vis.
But the good thing is it's all smaller material.
I'm gonna start dredging now.
All the smaller stuff, I think it's pretty fast to dredge through.
I cleared all the sections.
I focused on getting us down deeper.
Okay.
[Kayla] There's a light-colored rock
out in the middle out there.
That's actually a really big rock.
[narrator] Last week,
Kayla dredged down to eight feet
where she hit a clay layer.
Now she must remove the last few feet of boulders
to get down to what could be
a monster pile of gold.
[Kayla] A little bit of slack, please.
[Scott] Copy that.
- Ready? - [Kayla] All right, go for it.
Hopefully, it stays.
[Scott] That's like a big turd, Kayla.
[Paul] Oh, my [bleep], look at that!
Nice rocks.
[narrator] Despite morale at an all-time low,
under Kayla's leadership,
her crew makes steady progress towards bedrock.
[Paul] There you go, that's clear.
[Kayla] I lift that up with one arm.
[Paul] Yeah.
[narrator] Six hundred feet down creek,
with Dustin MIA and their future uncertain,
Wes, James and Carlos must band together.
[Carlos] Yeah, man, we're working solo, dude.
We don't got the Dustin knowledge in our head, man.
So, we have to rely on everybody
to put in their five cents to make this work.
[Wes] Back in business, man.
We can't quit. We've gone, come into this too far along
to Nugget Creek to quit.
I was thinking about grabbing these rocks,
- and putting them in the basket. - [Wes] Okay.
- [James] All these big ones. - [Wes] Yeah.
See what you can dredge.
See if I can go further this way,
see if I can go down and find bedrock.
- [narrator] For nearly two months... - Three, two, one!
[narrator] ...Dustin's crew have battled monster boulders...
- [Wes] Yeah! - [narrator] ...at their most difficult dive site ever...
[Wes] This is not a present place for dredging.
[narrator] ...and dug down over eight feet.
[Carlos] See any gold?
[Wes] Well, it's starting, man.
Look her there, buddy!
[Carlos laughing]
[Wes] If our small gold is this big or bigger,
we're in for a treat.
- That is not small. - [Carlos] That's gold, dude!
That's gold!
[narrator] Now before they can go any deeper,
the three-man crew must expand the hole
by hauling out surface rocks.
[Wes] Ha. That's probably about a load, isn't it?
[James] That's a load.
Yeah, just kinda hold on to it.
[wire breaking]
[Wes] Oh, come on!
What is going on?
[bleep]
It's not doing anything again.
[narrator] The winch system is the only way
to remove the monster boulders
that stand between them and the gold.
[Wes] One more day in the life of this [bleep] up place.
We can't move any [bleep] rocks the way this is set up.
As soon as you let that mother [bleep] down in the water
to pick anything up,
this [bleep] goes [bleep] haywire,
opens up like a [bleep] bird nest,
and you can't get anything.
This, uh, winch system,
it's proving time and time and time again
it can't get the right kind of lift to get the boulders out.
It's...
...just not doing its job.
[Wes] I've had my fill of this [bleep].
With our system being so steep,
I have to let slack on the upstream winch
and the downstream winch, and then they spool,
and when they do that, they jump over the barrel,
and it's locked up, and we're spending hours
replacing the cable again.
So, I'm gonna see if there's a place
we can put a skyline in here
because I'm ready for something to work right.
[narrator] Wes's plan? Upgrade to a skyline.
A high-fixed cable that supports a pully.
The two winches can then be used independently.
No slack, no bird nesting,
so they can move boulders trouble-free.
[Wes] See, check this out right here.
What do you think about this?
This up bed, I wonder how good that is.
[Carlos] That's the only viable place.
I think we can get the ladder,
it'll get most of the way up there,
and then can drill and put the anchor in to hang on.
So, it's safe and flat and that's a perfect sheer for that.
[James] That is perfect.
I think we need to go up to that rock and look down.
[Wes] Yep, I think we got a plan.
We'll check that out and then go from there.
[Carlos] I am trying to scope out
how this new skyline is gonna work out.
Wes's idea was to use this...
...as the anchor.
So, the way it kinda looks like,
looks like this skyline's gonna cut our pool
right in the middle, which is good news.
The skyline is a necessity,
We're making an executive decision here
since Dustin's not here.
Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.
Let's sacrifice a day fixing a skyline so then...
...the days after that, all we're doing is moving rocks
and getting down to business.
[narrator] Carlos has volunteered
for the most dangerous part of the installation.
Climbing 30 feet up a crumbling cliff face.
This is gonna be a non-sanctioned frickin' climb.
This is gonna get ugly.
The deal is don't fall, don't die.
That's the rules.
I hate heights.
I loathe heights.
[laughing]
Looks sketchy, doesn't it?
The scariest part about this...
...is trying to get a safety line put up first.
As long as James can keep that ladder there
just for, just for a little bit...
...I can secure this ladder.
Let's give it a try here, let's see.
Oh, dear heavenly father...
...please protect me.
Please protect me.
I gotta get home.
Holy Lord.
[James] Sketchy [bleep]!
Carlos, be careful, man.
[narrator] Thirty feet above Nugget Creek...
[Carlos] I'm literally trying to do this right, Lord.
Fear fear itself.
[narrator] ...facing off with a vertical cliff...
...Carlos attempts to install their new skyline.
[Carlos] Okay.
Hopefully that's gonna work.
[electric drill]
[Carlos] Argh!
All right, James, we're gonna change it up, dude.
That's ganky as hell, dude.
[James] Oh, my God.
[narrator] Nearly a foot taller and with a longer reach,
James taps in.
Here, here, here and here?
You got it.
I got two tie-off points, so...
...I should be good to rock and roll.
[Carlos] Be careful because that's soft rock.
That's ugly frickin' rock.
[James] This is sketchy.
[Carlos] Good job! Three more to go.
I'm gonna go help Wes.
[James] Okay.
[Wes] This is plain, so, I'm easy to drill four holes back here.
[narrator] The 100,000-pound behemoth
the minors call "Big Ass Boulder"
will act as the upstream anchor point.
[Carlos] Drops ought to go right in there, dude.
[Wes] Okay, that'll work, man.
I'm working on the easy part of the skyline,
the upstream side.
Why is it so easy?
I'm hanging free, baby!
No wobbly ladders.
No ugly rock to hang on to.
[electric drill]
[Wes] So far, it's going pretty smooth.
Carlos is drilling the upstream anchors.
James is doing great, we've got the downstream anchors in.
That's the hardest ones to get done.
We'll pull the cable up there, tighten it up,
and it's just a little bit of, uh, hooking up,
and it'll be ready to go.
This is actually a pretty fast set up we've got going today.
[narrator] Up creek at Kayla's site,
she is three hours into her dive.
[Kayla over radio] You can go up with the basket.
[Scott on radio] Copy that, coming up with the basket.
[narrator] Battling a field of boulders
between her and the bedrock gold.
She's definitely been working her ass off.
She's pretty much gone non-stop.
I know she's wore out, but, uh...
...she's down there giving it a fighting chance.
[Kayla] That hole is deep,
but it's pretty narrow.
So, we just need to, uh, widen the hole.
Copy that.
We run into this problem every year.
We get to this point,
we just start tunneling down,
and that just allow us to expose just a little bit of bedrock.
We need it exposed all the way across
so we can find that pasty,
and then follow that pastry.
[narrator] The dive hole is now nine-feet deep.
Before Kayla can go any deeper,
she must increase the width at the top...
...so they can expose maximum bedrock gold.
[Kayla] There's, uh, a really big rock.
Big shale rock, it's at least five-feet long,
um, and it's pretty wide as well.
I think I'm gonna try to blast this one.
[Scott] You want the drill?
[Kayla] Yeah, I'll need the drill.
[Scott] Copy that, I'll get it ready.
We've got a, uh, we've got a large shale rock.
It's bigger than what we can actually sling out.
So, we gotta blast it apart.
Kayla's gonna drill it,
and she's gonna blast it.
[drilling]
[Scott] He's got a charge ready, if you're ready for it.
[Kayla] I'm ready for it.
I'm gonna try it with just one booster.
[Scott] One booster? Copy that.
All right, everybody's ready?
- [Kayla] Yeah. - [Paul] Yep.
Here we go, fire in the hole.
Three, two, one.
[bang]
[Paul] Ooh, nice.
[Paul grunting] All right.
- [Kayla] Turn 'em off? - [Paul] Yeah.
[Kayla] I don't really know if that did much of anything.
[Kayla grunting]
[Scott] How are you doing, Kayla?
[Kayla] So hard doing this when you can't [bleep] see.
My body's tired, my arms are tired,
everything's tired.
I think we're gonna call it early today.
I don't think I'm gonna get back in.
Just need to retire and then early in the bed.
[Scott] You want your mask off?
[narrator] Despite Kayla reaching nine feet,
bedrock gold is still painfully out of reach.
I could just feel myself getting frustrated.
Don't get discouraged being tired.
We're all in the same boat right now.
I mean, you still got a lot of stuff out.
You're still getting rocks out, so we're still
making important progress, but...
[Kayla] I called my day a little bit earlier today, but...
...I still got a lot done in the hours that I was in.
Sometimes you just have to listen to your body
'cause if you overwork yourself,
then you're gonna be useless the next day.
[Scott] I wonder how they're doing with their skyline over there.
I don't know.
[Wes] We're close, man.
It looks like a making of a gorgeous skyline.
[narrator] Down at the golden gates,
the unsanctioned skyline system
is nearly complete.
[Wes] We can probably get it pretty tight even with this winch, I bet you.
Let's tighten this up, and then we can let it go.
[Wes] Is this slipping?
Huh?
- Yeah. - Okay.
[James] It's not tight enough.
[Wes] We can just go into that one and come along
and just pull that cable to get a loop here.
[Carlos] This is the granddaddys of all come-alongs.
You can close up the gap of the Grand Canyon with this thing.
I think this will give us that frickin' leverage that we need.
[grunting]
Hey, James, I think we gotta switch roles, man.
You're the one with the muscles for this.
[narrator] The monster come-along has a pulling power
of 5,200 pounds,
and is the first test for the new skyline anchors.
[rope clicking]
[Carlos] Holy [bleep], it's making some crazy tightening noises.
[grunting]
[Carlos] There you go.
Come on, J!
- [Wes] That's it. - [Carlos] That's it right there.
[Wes] Awesome job, guys.
[James] That's awesome, man.
I like it.
[Carlos] This is all tightened up.
Ready to rock and frickin' roll.
[Wes] Kinda the last step in the operation here.
Feed up to the top of the cable, hook on the cable,
hook the pull-back to the upstream pump.
[James] Skyline looks good.
Whoo-hoo!
- [James] Ready? - [Wes] Yeah.
[chuckling]
Maybe... oh, no, not too bad.
[Carlos] You look like a Texas pinata, man!
[Wes laughing]
So, I just gotta go to that, right?
- [Carlos] That's it. That's it, that's all we need. - [Wes] All right.
- Great job, I like the way this is turning out. - [Carlos] Yeah.
[Wes] Should have done it a long time ago, but still, we got it done.
[Carlos] Seeing the skyline up...
...it reminds you...
...the great guys to work with, you know what I mean?
[narrator] United in their triumph,
this skeleton crew proves risk brings reward...
The first skyline in Nugget Creek.
[narrator] ...but the win only highlights their loss.
As much as we're trying to keep our heads clear today,
it's frickin' hard
because what's going on in everybody's head right now
is what the hell's going on with Dustin?
Let's vamoose.
[narrator] The crew knows
their only shot at locating life-changing gold
is to track down their missing link.
I'm sure we'll be able to find where he's at.
[bleep]. Hammy.
[narrator] 9 miles up the Tsirku River,
the search party returns to Nugget Creek...
...with crew boss Dustin bringing up the rear.
[Carlos] Dustin is back
and I'll take that as a positive note.
Gotta get back to work.
Let's get this party started.
We still have our frustrations right now
'cause we know things hasn't resolved with Wes.
[narrator] But once again,
another vital crew member is MIA.
[man] What's goin' on?
What's going on is Dustin fired Wes.
That's what's going on.
[narrator] All season,
the tension between Dustin and Wes has been building.
Got a message from Dustin.
"Noon, livable."
[Wes] There's no [bleep] way, [bleep].
We can build [bleep] pretty fast, but not that.
- [cable whipping] - Whoa, [bleep]! Oh!
This is gonna be a typical [bleeping] day.
[bleep]
Fix it. Keep going. Fix it and keep going.
Like, I'm just trying to help.
I don't understand what I did wrong.
You just come over and took over what I was doing.
[bleep], you know?
[narrator] And during the trip to find Dustin,
it all came to a head.
[Dustin] What's goin' on?
[Carlos] Just don't feel it, man.
- About what? - About everything, about the whole deal.
- [Carlos] What's goin' on? - What whole deal?
Is Wes comin' back, is Wes not?
- Uh... - So you're just not gonna work until we talk about it?
- Or even after we talk about it-- - No, no, no, no, no.
- What are we talking about? - We just...
I'm just not motivated until we figure out
is Wes coming back or...
I feel like I'm being strong-armed right now and I don't like it.
- No, I-- - I'll tell you that right now
that I don't like this [bleep] at all.
It has nothing to do with strong-arming.
And it has nothing to do with disrespect, you know.
Okay.
I got pissed off, man.
He was getting to me so bad, I was ready to quit this job.
And when I quit, you all go away.
You all go do your own thing.
I know he loves you like a brother.
We're all family.
[Dustin] Let's see what's in this stuff, man.
[narrator] For almost a decade...
- Oh, that's full! - [laughing]
...Dustin and Wes have risked their lives...
- [cable snapping] - [bleep]! Bail!
...side by side...
- [Dustin] You saved my life, man. - Hoo, [bleep]!
[Wes] I couldn't let go there for nothin', man.
...in their search for life-changing gold.
[Wes] This is definitely gonna be our year.
[Dustin] Dare to dream, huh?
I love him like a brother, too, but...
I still have residual bull [bleep] that I don't wanna take out on him.
So I asked him...
not to come up for a little bit,
to go do some other things.
I can't tell you how much of a relief that is.
- [exhaling] - [Dustin] It was all up to him, man.
I feel a bit better.
I feel a bit better, but
did things get resolved?
- No. They didn't. - No. They didn't.
It's not resolved yet.
But that's a start.
Now he knows that...
we stood together on this.
I had a talk with Wes. We had a good talk.
I'm still pissed off, so
I needed him to be out of my face for a couple of days.
I think things are gonna change, though,
with Wes.
We'll see.
We live to work another day.
Live to work another day.
Abso-frickin'-lutely.
[narrator] Up at the Golden Gates...
[Carlos] Wow, this turned out to be beautiful today.
I wanna jump in, test out this line
and start getting some progress, man.
Start getting some gold.
[narrator] Dustin will get a first look
at the crew's changes to the operation.
Hey, y'all.
We put up a skyline.
I see that.
[narrator] The unsanctioned skyline
completely overhauled Dustin's system.
If it fails, it will be on them.
What was wrong with the old one?
We got too much of a bad angle, man.
A real steep angle. And it just won't work here.
So we can keep on working with the old system
and keep on fixing,
or we can try something new.
[Dustin] All right.
We're almost done, man.
We can get this thing settled up, man.
I hit the water, and we give it a try.
So right now, it will go over the center of the dredge.
There is no doubt in my mind, because when you're pulling that way,
almost no matter how tight you pull that,
everything's gonna move to the left.
[James] Putting it to the test.
See if it'll hold a boulder.
[narrator] If Dustin's right,
the new skyline will send the 500-pound basket
straight into the dredge.
Dustin's a person that's hard to please.
Period.
Holy [bleep].
Looking good so far. I love you.
Make this thing work.
Everybody needs a win.
Please. Please.
Nailed it!
[James] Yeah!
[laughing]
I personally think that's a [bleep] dang success.
[Dustin] Looks good.
It looks great, man.
It looks real good.
Gorgeous anchors, by the way.
Gorgeous.
Good job.
I'm gonna suit up. You guys are gonna get on the comms
and we're gonna get gold.
- [James laughs] - Yay, gold!
Yay, team!
[Dustin] We got the skyline goin'. It's a new, fresh start.
We're back in action. It's time to get digging.
[narrator] After one of the most trying weeks of his career...
Pump the hot water on, dude,
and I'm ready to rock and roll, guys.
...Dustin Hurt is looking to stage a comeback.
Hot water is going on.
And, today, he desperately needs a win.
Ready?
[Carlos] Heavenly Father, I'm in your hands.
Now we're in the water.
What do you got down there?
One big rock that we've been clopping to no avail.
I think if you get underneath that boulder,
there's gonna be gold under it.
Challenge accepted.
The rock I'm talking about is underneath the nose of the dredge.
Okay, I'll head on that side, then.
Okay. Got ya.
I think this is the one you guys are talking about.
[sighs] This thing goes down deep.
[Dustin over comms] Just so you know,
I never found the bottom of it.
[Carlos] Yeah, it's a big rock.
I'm gonna start loafing this thing.
[narrator] Carlos' plan,
blast the massive boulder into smaller, more manageable sections,
a technique the miners call bread-loafing.
Bread-loaf this thing.
You want one at a time or both of them?
No. One at a time, please.
[narrator] Carlos strategically places the blaster
to slice the first section of the boulder.
That's gonna about do.
- Go naught? - Yup, go naught.
[Dustin] Three, two, one.
- [loud bang] - [Carlos] Ooh, yeah.
That was a good pop, then.
[over comms] Yeah, that's what I needed.
[laughing] That's perfect, man.
Hey, James. Right down there are those small green straps.
That's it, brother. Throw it this way.
Ah, beautiful.
Beautiful.
Okay. Oh-ho-ho!
You got it.
The skyline's working well.
I'm about to move tons and tons
and literal tons of rock.
[Carlos over comms] See that big ol' boulder like that
just come to pieces?
That's exciting.
Just keep cracking it, man.
If we can move that whole rock,
maybe there's some gold under it.
I get it, man. I get it.
Now I'm a believer.
Yup.
- One-two, one-two, one-two. There you go. - I got you.
- It's the sweet spot. - Don't [bleep] touch it!
[narrator] 600 feet up creek...
Whoo! Time to dive!
...after Kayla's dive was cut short,
Scott must boost crew morale the only way he knows how.
Getting them on the gold.
This is my third season and I haven't seen bedrock yet.
So hopefully today, I can get some serious depth,
and I can get down and maybe hit bedrock.
[Paul] Okay, that works.
- Cool. - [Kayla] Have a good dive.
[Scott] Hopefully, I'll have some gold
- and maybe some bedrock later. - [Kayla] That'd be nice.
If we're focusing on widening the perimeter of the hole,
- you need to slow it down just a little bit. - Yeah.
Yup.
Copy that.
Al right.
[Paul] You good?
Good to go.
Don't you come outa there till you find some gold, boy.
Copy that!
[over comms] And down he goes.
Oh! There's that blast of cold water.
And leak-wise.
How's your vis? It looks like it's[bleep].
It's [bleep].
So I got some little [bleep] I gotta clean up
and then I'm gonna start moving rocks.
Copy that.
I know Scott's gonna wanna go down
'cause he wants to see bedrock.
I don't know it's the best idea right now.
The best idea is to expand the hole.
But Scott might have different plans.
Oh, hi, rock. There's a big rock.
[laughs]
All right, come down for me.
[Paul over comms] Copy that.
I need a longer choker, actually.
Okay.
This little leash ain't doin' it.
[over comms] You're hooked. Go ahead and pull tension on it.
I got it double-wrapped, so it shouldn't come off.
Come on, baby.
[bleep] damn it.
It's round as [bleep] on one side.
[cable whipping]
[bleeping]
[Paul] That flipped the headache ball over.
[bleep] I'm gonna focus on getting more depth.
I could only be a couple feet from bedrock.
You on the bottom?
Yeah.
Copy that.
- [Kayla over comms] Hey, Scott. - What's up?
I already told you to widen the hole.
If you could get off the bottom
and do what I asked and work the perimeter.
Yeah, I got ya. I got ya.
That would be great.
[Scott groans]
[Kayla] We don't really have time for someone that's not gonna catch on.
And if somebody gets seriously injured
because of a lack of communication,
I'm gonna be very angry.
[narrator] Down at the Golden Gates...
How far you think you've got with that rock so far, man?
Good, man. Everything's good right now.
[over comms] Everything's rocking, man. Everything's good, man.
...Carlos has proved the new skyline a success
by quickly removing the bread-loafed boulder
in under four hours.
The dive is going well.
Carlos is doing a great job.
He's getting through that big boulder.
[James] This rock has been plaguing us.
Dredge all this out and get the gold.
It's right here.
[Carlos] Let's get rid of this basket.
Okay, that's the last slice of this big boulder.
Take it away.
I'll go check there for the gold right now.
Holy crap.
There's hardpack under this big boulder.
I'm on hardpack.
Holy moly!
- [James] Are you kidding me? Yeah! - [Carlos laughing]
[Dustin] Awesome, man. Just keep moving it.
[narrator] Hardpack is the last compacted layer
before they reach bedrock and the gold.
[James] Good job, Carlos!
[laughing] Beautiful.
Beautiful.
[James] [bleep] yeah, dude. That's awesome.
[Wes] We've been together for so long that
there's no way that you can't work together for 10 years
and not get in an argument.
[narrator] After the bust up with Dustin,
Wes is on a solo mission to salvage materials
from Porcupine's junk pile.
You know, Dustin and I, we were getting on each other's nerves
kind of a lot.
And then next thing, we're arguing. It's like,
"Wait a minute. We need to stop this[bleep]. This is stupid.
We're not mad at each other. We're mad at the situation
and we're taking it out on each other.
That's what brothers do.
I'm gonna take a few days off.
Just take a break from each other.
We fight and push and argue
and-- but when it comes right back down to it,
we're family and we're all gonna stay together.
That's just the way it is.
[James over comms] Good job!
Good job, Carlos.
[narrator] At the Golden Gates,
Dustin's crew has overcome the week that nearly ruined them.
[Carlos] Whoo-hoo!
That's dredging!
They've built a better system to get them to bedrock
and now believe they are just inches from the gold.
[Carlos] I'm starting to cramp up.
But five hours of back-breaking work...
I'm tired, man.
...has pushed Carlos to his limit.
[Dustin] Yeah, it's done.
Done.
There was a lot of progress made.
I was getting somewhere, man. I was getting somewhere.
I'm gonna go check my box.
Everybody needs a win.
Come on!
Nothing! [bleep] damn it.
I got underneath it, but it's not on bedrock.
[Dustin] I love my guys.
They have just been working their butts off.
Carlos saw hardpack under the big boulder.
Whoever gets in next will definitely find big gold.
It's time for the next step.
[narrator] Up at Kayla's site,
Scott is three hours into his dive.
All right, pull up on that.
Following Kayla's instructions,
he has widened the hole to 12 feet across.
[Paul] Yeah. That's not a small rock, dude.
Holy [bleep].
[Scott laughing]
Boy, he's moving some rocks today.
Scott doin' Scott stuff.
"I am Scott. Hear me roar."
- [Scott meows] - [laughing]
How's it goin' down there?
It's goin' real good.
I got the wall pretty much free of boulders.
And it goes from the hose into the rapids.
[Kayla] Good job.
Since we have more perimeter opened up,
we focus on getting us down deeper.
Copy. Maybe hit some bedrock.
That'd be[bleep] sweet.
[Paul] Nice-looking material coming over the back.
[Scott over comms] Yeah. I gotta clean off another rock here.
Oh, oh, oh, oh. A-ha!
Yes!
Check that out.
Yup, we're at... covered in all kinds of conglomerate.
[Kayla] Dang, that's crazy.
[Paul] That's the layer we're looking for.
That's pretty close to bedrock.
[narrator] Just like at Dustin's site,
Scott's hit hardpack,
they layer that sits right above the bedrock.
When you get to that layer,
that's the layer that's got the gold in it.
Hopefully, he's into that good layer
and maybe there'll be some gold in the box.
You know, I'm working so hard down here,
I'm actually sweating in my mask.
[bleep] damn, I am [bleep] tired.
[narrator] But getting down to hardpack
leaves Scott running on empty.
Don't push yourself too much and get yourself hurt.
I feel a little... a little sting in my leg.
[groans]
I think I might call it, dude. I'm [bleep] bushed.
I'm getting stumbly.
Okay.
Hey, I got a lot of [bleep] rocks, though.
Yeah, you have.
Good dive, man.
[Scott] I know I put a lot of material across there today
from underneath boulders, so.
I'm kind of hopeful.
Come on, come on, come on!
[Kayla] Eh, I don't see anything.
Not yet.
[Scott] I didn't get down to bedrock,
but I definitely cleared a [bleep] path. That's for sure.
Whoever goes in next,
he's got a wide-open hole down there.
I got so many rocks out, so many boulders out.
I got a lot of [bleep] cleared off.
Today, we had a really good day.
I'm happy with the crew that I have.
I think all together, we get a lot done.
Let's get all this [bleep] tidied up and let's get out of here.
[narrator] After months of back-breaking work,
both crews have finally hit hardpack.
A big reward may be on the horizon.
Tomorrow's dive could get them down to bedrock
and life-changing gold.
[thunder clap]
Overnight, an unexpected storm dumps over 4 inches of rain.
Holy [bleep]. This is insane.
We check our site, see how it's doing.
[narrator] The crew wakes to the deafening sound
of Nugget Creek's fury.
[Dustin] What in the hell?
This [bleep] water is coming up.
[sighs] Here we go again.
We had a catastrophic flood.
[narrator] The torrent from the rain and debris
threatens to destroy anything in its path.
The water's coming up so fast right now.
[narrator] Instead of cleaning out bedrock nuggets,
today has turned into an emergency rescue mission.
I never thought I would ever see anything like this.
I thought I'd seen all the flash floods at the McKinley.
I thought I'd seen it all.
This is, by far--
It came up! It just came up right now!
[James yelling] The winch!
[Carlos] It's the winch is underwater!
When we came, that winch was way out of water.
[Dustin] We need to save that dredge.
[bleep] everything else.
We have to help out with Kayla's crew.
Just don't [bleep] die.
[James] This ain't showing any sign of stopping.
It's still raising.
[Dustin] What are we doin'?
[Kayla] Tie off the dredge!
[James] [bleep], I'm trying.
[Dustin] All hands on.
We have to get it on the bank.
[James] Whoa! Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!
You're punching a hole.
Holy [bleep].
[Dustin] A tidal wave could come at any time.
We need to get out of here.
It's going over the boardwalk right now.
We can't get back.
[narrator] The only means of escape from Kayla's site
is on the boardwalk that's about to disappear.
They're almost out.
Lift it off.
[grunting]
[bleep]
- [Dustin] I'm getting hung up. - [Kayla] Pull! Pull harder!
[Carlos] Get out! We gotta go!
[Dustin] We need to get [bleep] out of this area.
This is a prime time to die here.
It's not safe out here.
- [Kayla] Come on, let's go! - [Carlos] Get out of here, man! Go!
- Go! We gotta go! - [Dustin] Go!
Go, go, go, go!
Hurry the [bleep] up!
Our [bleep] walkway's underwater.
The only thing, we need to make it out of site.
We had to abandon the dredge. The dredge is [bleep] dead.
We're about to lose everything
and there's nothing I can do but watch it happen.
This place is destroyed.
Everything we have is underwater right now.
The water took everything today.
I don't know how we didn't see this comin'.
Yup. This is a...
...fubar.
[narrator] Up ahead on this season ofGold Rush White Water...
I finally realized y'all are tougher than I am.
[crew laughing]
[Dustin] We've been out here working for three months
and still no gold.
If you stay with it, this is what you're gonna find.
Scott for Nugget Creek. Anybody there?
My boat's dead and we're in the river.
It's gonna take us right into that wall. Hold on, boys!
- Hold on! - [crashing]
This is a nightmare.
Right now, it's a waiting game.
We gotta let it run its course
and then check the carnage afterwards.
[Dustin] I feel cursed here. I feel like this place hates us.
This is beyond anything I thought was possible.
But too stubborn to stop.
Going back to our roots, man. Scary diving.
I can smell the gold!
[bleep], it's about time! [bleep] yay!
There's a crack in the bedrock and I can see a piece of gold.
- [Dustin] Whoo! - [Carlos] We found gold!
- It's right there! - Oh, yeah.
[laughing]
We got gold!
[all cheering]
I [bleep] worked my [bleep] into the dirt for her!
[Dustin] We need to regroup
'cause we're on a steady path of destruction here.
[man laughing]
This is our final push.
Get out of there!
- Whoa! - [bleep]
That's gonna give us nightmares for frickin' years.