[tense music playing]
[Dustin] We have all of our stuff now?
- [man] Yup. - Everything we need is in this box.
And, uh, this is us moving in.
[tense music playing]
[Carlos] This is a whole new chapter, man.
We got freakin' gold coming our way, man,
because we put in the freakin' effort
and the work for this.
[Dustin] If you guys thought that journey was hard,
wait till we start diggin'.
This is going to be the hardest thing
we've ever done.
So, y'all ready for a challenge?
- [Kayla] Yeah. - [man] Yup.
All right. Let's build camp.
Let's get the dredges ready. Let's go find a spot to dig.
We got a lot of work to do
and we don't have a whole bunch of time to do it.
I want to be digging soon
to pay for all of this adventure.
We need to get up into that creek up there
and go find some gold.
[man] Sounds like a plan.
[tense music playing]
[whirring]
[Dustin] I can't wait to be living here
and already digging gold and finding gold.
This is the start of all that and I'm excited for it.
This is gonna be a really, really good place for us.
[James] Holy [bleep].
[man] There's a bear right there.
That is a bear!
[man] Holy [bleep] we are way out here.
We're in bear territory.
[Dustin] 40 miles per hour, dude.
38 to 40 miles per hour, that's how fast they go.
You cannot outrun them. There's nothing you can do.
[growls]
[Dustin] He is not wanting to [bleep] move.
[tense music playing]
[James] Oh, [bleep] we're getting into a bear's den.
The water here is steeper
than anything we've ever dug ever.
[Carlos] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Watch out. Watch out.
- [Kayla] [bleep] - [Carlos] watch out. Watch out.
[Dustin] Get her out of there.
If I die, I love you guys.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure.
[man] One, two, three, go.
[laughter]
- [man] That was surreal. - [man 2] [bleep]
[man laughs]
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] I know there's much larger gold here.
It's gonna be a huge payday for us.
[man 3] Are you looking for gold?
[Dustin] I think it's the first time ever.
[man 3] And can you imagine what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
[man 2] It's gonna be full of gold.
[tense music playing]
[man] Hey! What you doing?
[gun cocks]
[gunshot]
[man] Whoop.
Yeah, that got his attention.
[man 2 laughs]
[man] Trying to dominate the area, basically.
[tense music playing]
[narrator] Deep in the remote Alaskan wilderness,
Dustin Hurt is embarking on a mining season
most wouldn't dare.
His new Nugget Creek claim
lies 30 miles from the nearest town.
They're now two days into building a camp
that will be their home for the next five months.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] That [bleep] was crazy, man.
Just drove through 50-foot alders.
That was insane.
This is it. We're moving in.
As hard as this place is to get, I went all in.
With any luck,
I'll be super successful with that gold,
I wanna continue digging here
for the next five to ten years.
[tense music playing]
[narrator] Two weeks ago...
[Dustin] How's it going, y'all?
Hey, hey, Dustin.
Dustin made the biggest decision of his mining career.
I don't think we're gonna go back to McKinley this year.
[narrator] Gambling his life savings
on claims so remote,
he believes they still hold a fortune in gold.
[Dustin] They found a 4-ounce nugget right there somewhere.
[narrator] But a claim with this much potential
comes at a cost.
[man] I'm in trouble.
[Dustin] Dude, hold on. Hold on.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] I'll be paying for this for the rest of my life
if we mess this up and don't get gold.
[Wes] I know there's much larger gold here.
We've got to be in an area
that's really close to the source.
Hopefully, we're gonna find some untamed area
that nobody's touched
and it's gonna be a huge payday for us.
Nugget Creek has nuggets.
The way I hear it from the locals,
there is still plenty of gold in this creek
to change our lives.
[narrator] Before any mining can begin,
they need a place to call home.
- [man] Like that. - [James] Looks good right here.
There's a lot of work we got to do
before we can actually
even think about gold mining.
Paul and I are working on, uh,
getting these little cabins finished.
[narrator] Crew fabricator Wes Richardson
and his brother Paul
need to make these cabins bear-proof.
[Wes] We wanna stay up here tonight.
So, it's a mad rush right now
to try to get these things livable.
Got a message from Dustin.
"Noon. Livable."
[Wes] Oh, man.
Yeah. No, that's not gonna happen.
That's impossible.
There's no [bleep] way.
I mean, I can [bleep] build [bleep] pretty fast, but not that.
We got to completely box 'em, we got to put doors.
Yeah, I know. I hear you, brother.
We're on a countdown, man.
- [whirring] - [tense music playing]
[Dustin] We're putting in an access road
where we can actually get from the river up to the camp.
When that river comes up, it's gonna be impassable.
We're gonna get the CONEX box moving back towards camp.
[tense music playing]
[narrator] Dustin's CONEX box
containing all their mining equipment
lies stranded on the bank of the Tsirku River
until the crew can blaze an access trail
over 800 feet to their new camp.
But with the spring thaw,
they must act quickly
before glacial melt-off washes it away.
This is one of those tasks that I'm really kind of annoyed by it.
This is not what I wanna be doing up here.
I'd rather be up the creek mining.
I've got three kids and a wife at home.
I'd much rather be making gold
than digging up [bleep] roots.
[narrator] Dragging the 6-ton CONEX box
will push their most vital piece of equipment,
the dozer, to its breaking point.
[man] Okay! Let's drag it!
[tense music playing]
[man] Now, we got some really tight turns.
[man grunts]
[man 2] Oh.
Who's gonna win? The tree or the dozer?
[man] [bleep] tree.
[man] Good job.
You got it.
- [man] Oh. - Come on!
[bleep] damn it! What happened?
[man] And I knew that one's gonna happen.
[Scott] It's just the bolts. It's just the bolts.
- It's just the bolts. - [man] Yup. Yup.
A lot of strain on these bolts that hold the actual...
tongue plate on for the trailer.
They, uh, decided to let go.
- [Dustin] Yo! - [man] Hey.
[Dustin] That hook has to go underneath that bar.
I don't want this to take a month.
I don't want this to take a week.
I wanna be digging right now.
It's killing me because I need some gold to pay for all this.
[tense music playing]
[man] Plan B, the dozer is gonna use its winch
to pull it all the way up.
Stuck.
Winch is stuck in gear.
[narrator] Every hour spent getting their equipment to camp
is time lost mining.
And with the cost of the new claims to pay for,
Dustin needs to find more gold than ever.
This CONEX box came all the way from Porcupine.
Now, the only thing that's stopping it is only about,
like, 1,000 feet away from its permanent home.
Go home!
Yank it!
[man] [bleep] screw that.
Can't put it... There you go.
Here we go. Here we go.
Beautiful. Look at that.
Look at how smooth that is.
Look at that.
[man] That's a [bleep] powerful winch.
[Dustin] 50,000 pounds of [bleep] going right up there.
[man] That was close.
Whoo! Come on, baby.
[man] CONEX box in place!
[bleep] that was hard.
[whirring]
[James] This right here is our new home.
This is the last part to our cabins.
I think I get these on,
and then we can close it enough to sleep in here tonight.
That's our biggest thing. We wanna be able to move in.
[tense music playing]
[Kayla] We've got our camp ready
to where we can start staying here.
We can move on to the next job,
which is getting ready to start dredging
because building a camp, it's necessary,
but it's definitely not putting gold in our pockets.
[Carlos] I got my bed inside there.
Just got to put me a window,
a couple of pictures, we're ready to rock and roll.
Home away from home.
If you're comfortable sleeping at night,
waking up early in the morning,
diving for gold, doesn't seem so bad.
I hope to God that there is so much gold in there
that will make all of this worthwhile.
[dramatic music playing]
[country music playing]
- [Wes] Morning. - Good morning.
[Wes] Coffee?
The first thing you got to have in the morning
or you can't [bleep] wake up.
[laughter]
[narrator] Two weeks into the mining season,
Dustin and his crew can finally shift their focus
to figuring out how they are going to mine this rugged claim.
[Dustin] My real hope is that we can actually conquer this.
One of the things I haven't told everybody,
the water here is steeper
than anything we've ever dug ever.
[tense music playing]
And I think they're gonna flip out
on how vertical the water is,
45 degrees.
We've never done anything like that,
so it's got me a little worried.
[tense music playing]
But once we see that first nugget,
I think that's gonna be the turning point.
[tense music playing]
Right now, I'm gonna go up the creek for the first time.
See what we're getting into. It may just shut us down.
It could be that we just get there
and we can't go anywhere.
The water might be too hot.
Who needs an ATC?
Our whole mission today is access.
Can we get up there?
How do we get up there?
That's where all this gear comes in.
If you guys would go look for some gold,
see what the gold content might be in the sides
and the edges and behind the big rock.
- Yup. - That would be awesome.
Y'all do the sampling.
Someone bring a gun?
- [man] I got. - [Wes] I got mine, too.
[Dustin] All right.
Everybody ready to see Nugget Creek?
- [man] [bleep]. - [man] Let's go check it out.
[narrator] From their camp down by the Tsirku River.
The crew has to journey a third of a mile up the mountain
along Nugget Creek
to get to the start of Dustin's claims,
where he believes there are plunge pools
containing millions of dollars in gold.
My property line isn't even close
to where we're at right now.
I actually don't know how far, but it's up there.
I... You know what, I think it is.
It's that [bleep] drop right now.
- [man] Where that tree is? - [Dustin] That's the property line.
I think that's it. I'll tell you once I see it.
[man] No.
So let's go see what the access looks like.
[man] Huh, I thought this was it.
I said, "Hey, this is pretty, we can do this."
[Dustin] No. This would be too easy.
[man] Looks like some pretty fast water.
[tense music playing]
- [man] That's moving, dude. - [Dustin] Yeah, it's moving.
[Dustin] It's all water from here out.
Yeah, I don't know if the water is too crazy.
Nothing I can do.
[Scott] A cliff...
Just past the cliff, there's another draw that comes down.
We ain't getting up this way. We got to go up and over.
[Dustin] All right. Why don't you explore that?
You see if you can make a trail over the top.
- [Scott] All right. - I can walk this, I think.
But, well, let's see.
- Uh, James. - [James] Yeah?
- You got a shovel to help him? - [James] Okay.
You can swamp or dig
or whatever the hell you got to do to get there.
If James and Scott can find a way over the top,
we don't have to go through this raging creek every single day.
[narrator] It's another 500 feet up Nugget Creek
to the start of Dustin's claims.
To get there, Dustin will lead a whitewater party
straight up the raging creek
while Scott and James scout the mountainside
in search of quicker overland access.
[Wes] Right now, the water is raging,
but the harder it is to get to,
the more gold is gonna be up there.
[Dustin laughs]
I'm back, baby.
- [Carlos] He's smiling. - This is gonna be [bleep].
This is gonna be fun.
He's smiling. I like it.
[Scott] I'm just kind of zigzagging here.
We're thinking about going right through here, James.
[James] I wanna go this way.
Through the poison [bleep].
[narrator] The mountainside
is packed with toxic hellebore,
which can be deadly if eaten.
[James] Don't lick my hands. I've grabbed nauseous weed.
[Scott] James, I think you found us a bear trail, dude.
[James] Does it look like it's dropped down?
[Scott] Yeah, it does.
We got prints.
[groans] Yeah. There's bear scat right here.
- [James] Is there? - [Scott] Yeah.
[James] Oh [bleep] we're getting into a bear's den.
You have your gun, don't you? I don't have mine.
[Scott] Yes, I do.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] Hey, don't touch these [bleep] alders.
Don't touch the alders at all.
There's rocks under them.
[man] They're one hell of a headache.
[narrator] Dustin will lead up the raging creek
and secure a safety line for the rest to follow.
So, Paul, one of us blows,
we'll go down here real fast.
Just lock down,
take up as much as you can, but lock it down.
Wes, get us to the side,
even if we're unconscious, get us to the side.
[Wes] Copy.
You're not gonna pull us upstream, don't even try.
- [Wes] Got you. - You cannot pull us upstream.
You need to get to the side.
[Wes] Copy.
[Dustin] He's gonna hook into that [bleep].
You're pretty solid about your situation now?
Look and listen to this thing.
- [Dustin] Don't break it. - No. Okay.
That's what I'm saying. Okay. Pretty confident.
I mean [bleep] and all this is all loose [bleep].
- [Dustin] All right. - Confident as can be.
[Dustin] What I'll do is I'll get across,
I'll lash off one of those boulders if I can.
- Are you coming with me? - Yeah.
We'll set up a boat and you guys can follow,
just tie your rope off real tight on this.
Well, if I die, I love you guys.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] I'm [bleep] moving right there.
[man] Got him.
[tense music playing]
[man] I can't see him anymore.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] Holy [bleep].
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Dustin] That is a big damn rock,
that'll kill you.
[man] It's under that ice.
[Carlos] Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch out! Watch out!
[bleep] watch out, watch out! [bleep]!
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] I'm [bleep] moving right there.
[man] Got him.
[man] I can't see him anymore.
[narrator] In the raging whitewater of Nugget Creek.
[Dustin] [bleep] that's fast.
[narrator] To access his new claim,
Dustin must cross unaided
to anchor in a safety line for his crew.
One slip, he could be knocked unconscious and drown.
The water is definitely a little bit more than ones at McKinley.
[Dustin groans] This is dangerous.
It'll [bleep] kill you.
[tense music playing]
[Kayla] You don't wanna go downstream and wait
or they fill up and that's that.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] I'm not dying like this.
Come on!
[tense music playing]
Come on, man, you can do it.
[Dustin] Come on [bleep]!
- [man] come on! - [Carlos] He's doing it.
[Dustin] Really crazy.
[Carlos laughing]
[man] Whoo!
What?
[Carlos laughing]
[man] Crazy [bleep]!
[Dustin] It wasn't easy!
[Carlos laughing]
I can't believe he did it. Holy crap!
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] Got it good, tighter! Tighter!
[Carlos] Tighter?
Hey Paul, can you pull it tighter?
[Dustin] Tighter!
[Carlos] All right, man.
Holy crap, what am I doing?
[Dustin] Slide your feet.
- Slide your feet. - [Carlos] Oh! Yeah. Got you.
[Carlos] Whoo!
[laughing]
I can't believe this [bleep] come to Alaska!
You're gonna dig gold!
[Dustin] I did that [bleep] with no rope!
[Carlos laughing]
No rope!
[Carlos] Holy crap, man.
You're a crazy [bleep]!
That was too insane.
[tense music playing]
If we had to do this every day
to get to where we're gonna dredge,
we're gonna spend a lot of time
just trying to get there.
[Paul] Hopefully, those guys can find a better access up and over the top.
[tense music playing]
[Scott] [bleep] get out of my face.
Oh, it opens up big time here, dude.
- [James] What's that? - [Scott] It opens up big time.
[narrator] Hundreds of feet above the creek,
James and Scott search for a safer route
to access their new claim.
[James] Holy [bleep].
- [Scott] Wow. - [James] Holy [bleep].
That looks like the dive spot Dustin's talking about.
Wow.
[Scott] The whole river is covered in snow, look at that.
[James] Yeah, it is.
We're gonna have to wait for it to...
[sighs]
Man, I don't know what's gonna happen.
Are you going out there?
I'll go out to that rock at least and take a look.
That'll give me a good look up and down.
To see if we might have missed something, you know.
[James] Just be careful, man.
Yeah. We get anchored up.
[tense music playing]
[James] You bang on it.
[Scott] To me.
Nice and slow.
[James] Careful, Scott.
It's [bleep] vertical.
Basically, this squeeze right here,
that choke point behind me, that's the line.
That's where the snow melt stops.
I can't see flowing water at all upstream.
Nothing but snow and avalanche debris.
[James] It goes for miles.
There's snow going for miles.
[Scott] It's sheer vertical here.
It's sheer vertical there.
I don't see a viable option
for this to be any kind of a route to work, man.
This is...
This is no-go.
[James] Yeah. It's too much.
[Scott] I can tell you honestly, though.
If I was working below,
feel a whole lot better about that not being there.
This thing needs to go.
[narrator] The view from the mountaintop
reveals the full picture of Dustin's new claim.
The sheer vertical cliff edge makes the route impassable.
And the area they want to dig
is still covered in snow and ice.
And teetering directly above their dive site
is a gigantic killer boulder.
All I know, James, I really hope that
Dustin and them are having a hell of a lot better luck
at finding a route to work than we are.
[James] I can see him.
Dustin!
[tense music playing]
[man] They're on a cliff up there.
- But we could see them? - Oh, yeah.
- That's [bleep] high, dude. - About top, top. Top, top.
[bleep] that way, that way.
[Dustin] This ain't it!
It's further up!
[man] Is it really?
He said it's further up, it's not the spot!
[man] I can just stick to that, man,
it's just one section!
[narrator] Just 75 feet from his claim boundary,
standing between Dustin and his payday,
a raging section of creek.
[Dustin] [bleep] too strong, man.
That's [bleep] deep right there.
[exhales]
[man] Oh, my [bleep] it's under that ice!
[Dustin] [bleep] that's crazy, man.
[man] It's pile of snow up there now.
[man] Holy [bleep] there's [bleep] snow up there still.
[Dustin] The snow is all the way across the creek.
[narrator] Nearly every inch of the creek
in Dustin's claim is covered in a thick layer of snow
that could take months to melt.
[Dustin] It's like 25 feet thick.
I didn't know there's gonna be so much damn snow.
You would think it was wintertime here.
This is not going as planned.
[Carlos] Our gold is underneath that snow.
Means it's a late start for us
until that snow gets out of there.
[narrator] While the crew surveys the scene,
Kayla eagerly samples the exposed gravel.
There's a fault line running right here.
I wanna do samples
because it might give us an idea
of what we can expect to find
when we do hit bedrock there.
[Carlos] Holy [bleep] what the [bleep] was that?
That was me.
I rolled the rock.
[Carlos] Are you gonna try to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch out! Watch out! [bleep].
- [Kayla] Whoa. - [Carlos] Watch out, watch out!
[dramatic music playing]
[Carlos] Are you gonna try to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch out! Watch out! [bleep].
- [Kayla] Whoa! - [Carlos] Watch out, watch out!
[Kayla] Are you [bleep] kidding me?
- [Dustin] Are you okay? - [Carlos] Are you all right?
[Dustin] Oh, my God.
[Carlos] This whole thing just came out.
[Dustin] Are you hurt?
Get her out of there.
[narrator] Deep in the wilderness,
prospecting Nugget Creek,
Kayla has been hit by a falling rock.
[Kayla] [bleep] damn it.
- [Dustin] Are you all right? - [Kayla] Yeah.
[Dustin] That [bleep] rock, got to go...
- Get you, didn't it? - [Kayla] Yeah.
It got my ankle a little bit.
[Dustin] [bleep] this is [bleep] treacherous, man.
[narrator] A day's travel from the nearest emergency room.
An injury out here could be life-threatening.
[Carlos] That whole [bleep] gave up, man [bleep].
Not knowing, I was coming down the hill,
kicked a big rock and it's just a whole
side of the hill came down on Kayla.
Kayla was down the bottom, doing some panning,
and wrong place, wrong time.
[Dustin] Seriously, are you okay?
- Seriously. - [Kayla] Just a little puffy.
[man] She got a little bit of a swelling.
[Dustin] You can lose a [bleep] arm that quick.
[Kayla] It's just a little tender, that's all.
- Be more careful. - Oh, yeah, man.
- I didn't-- - I know. Nobody--
- I didn't think-- - We know you didn't mean it.
- Yeah, yeah. - [Kayla] It wasn't intentional.
Now you know.
Didn't think the whole side was gonna come off.
[Dustin] We'll check it again tonight and tomorrow.
All right.
Well, whenever you guys are ready,
we're gonna bail.
I finally got to see my claims.
It looks promising.
It's so hard to get to.
Makes me think that there's no way
people have been up here and done this by hand.
Nobody's that dumb.
There's a lot of snow.
I've never had to deal with this before.
We're clever enough to figure this out.
It's got to be great gold up here.
I'm not gonna let the snow stop us.
Keep coming, there's a big rock
over here somewhere to hit.
If you down on that that [bleep] hole, it's bad.
[dramatic music playing]
Oh, yeah.
That's the spot.
[Dustin] [bleep] just wet.
- Everything got wet. - [Paul] Yeah.
Here comes Scott and James.
Hopefully they got us a trail.
What, you guys decided to just take the afternoon off?
- Just lounge around? - [groans]
[Kayla] Yup, that's what we did.
- [Dustin] Find us a trail? - [Scott] [bleep] no.
- [James] There's no way. - [Dustin] So, there's no trail?
- No way in hell. - Not that way.
- It's vertical. - [man] Wow.
[Scott] You saw where I was standing there?
How vertical? Thousand feet...
- Vertical, vertical. - 400 feet, 200 feet?
I can do 200 feet.
Three to four.
- Three to four. - [man] Wow.
[Scott] Somewhere in that neighborhood.
And we got sights on up creek.
- It's all snow covered. - [Scott] Yup.
[Kayla] We ran into snow, too.
But just past that snow that you guys ran into,
there's like a 20-foot tall [bleep] ice dam.
You don't think there's any access at all from up there?
None?
[Scott] It just gets steeper and steeper and steeper.
[James] Walking up the creek is our only hope.
[Scott] Yup.
[Dustin] This place is not easy to dig.
I thought McKinley was hard.
I've got a whole new set of problems.
It seems like McKinley on steroids.
[dramatic music playing]
[Kayla] It could have been way worse.
If I had broken my ankle, you know,
I'd be out for several weeks
that I wouldn't be able to really do anything.
I'm gonna put some ice on it.
Hopefully, it'll go down by the morning.
I'm not glad it happened, but I'm glad it happened
before I'm actually mining and diving,
stuff like that, because if it keeps me
out of the water, that would have pissed me off
a whole lot more.
[dramatic music playing]
[Scott] I think these will do.
[James] That rock is teetering, so...
- You guys, is that all we're gonna need? - Yeah.
[Dustin] Well, we have to get this rock down today, guys.
It has to be pushed over the edge
before there's humans down there.
- Absolutely. - All right.
So, we'll head up there right now
and see if we can get this rock to bust loose, huh?
You guys ready?
- Let's rock. - Let's get up the hill.
It's better to deal with it in the dive site,
when we put it there on purpose
rather than deal with it at the dive site
when it decides to come down there on its own.
[narrator] Dustin must devise a plan to uncover his claim
from over 20 feet of snow.
[Dustin] Let's go check it out.
[narrator] But before his crew can work safely,
he must first clear the widow-maker above.
Dustin...
What do you think of our little pebble there?
[Dustin] That is a big damn rock.
I don't think you could aim that thing more
at your dive site if you tried.
[Dustin] Oh, that'd kill you.
All right, guys, let's set up a rope.
Let's knock that boulder off.
I don't want that thing landing on my head.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] I'm gonna tell you,
I am not used to these big cliffs like this.
It gets inside your head, man.
[bleep] ooh, I'm sweating already.
[James] I can't look down.
There's always a fear of falling.
[narrator] Five hundred feet above the creek,
James must overcome his fear of height...
[Dustin] Just don't look down.
[narrator] ...a nd climb 30 feet down a narrow ridge
facing a vertical drop on either side.
[Dustin] Take your time. Slow down. Take a breath.
[James] It's shaky.
- Mmm-hmm. - [Dustin] This is fear.
Feel it. You're okay.
Just take your time.
- Good. - [James] Okay. I'm not looking down.
Good footing. Good footing.
- [James] Not looking down. - [Dustin] Good footing.
You're good.
- That was amazing. - [James] For real?
- [Dustin] Good for you, man. - [James] I'm not looking...
[laughs] I'm not looking at...
I'm not looking down.
Nicely done, James. Nicely done, bro.
Right now, this is-- Holy mother.
- What? - [Dustin] I think you have to pry that,
- loosen that [bleep]. - [Scott] I think you're gonna have to go
dig it out from underneath.
[James] Yup. Should we try to get that ground rock out of there
first at the bottom, and then pry?
- You wanna try that? - Yeah. There you go.
- Are you going for it? - Yeah.
[narrator] Tethered by a single safety line,
the crew must clear the rocks under the giant boulder
before they can pry it off the cliff edge,
placing them all in a danger zone.
[Dustin] If you fall, we all fall.
- It's that simple. - [groans]
[Dustin] Not the right way to do this,
but we're doing it.
[Scott] This thing's gonna [bleep] go.
Holy [bleep].
[tense music playing]
[James grunts]
Ooh, the whole thing is moving.
This thing really is loose.
Don't get your hands under there.
You got to lose that bar. Lose the bar.
But back the [bleep] out of there
if it starts to move, right?
[James] This is [bleep].
[Scott] Awkward as hell.
[James] I think it wouldn't be this rotten.
All I got up here is shale, dude.
[narrator] Five hundred feet high above Nugget Creek,
Dustin, James, and Scott,
work to remove a giant widow-maker
threatening their new claim directly below.
Looks like you got about three more feet
and it [bleep] didn't happen [bleep].
Let's try to dig it like this.
[bleep] It's falling apart.
Oh. That's teetering though.
Mmm-hmm.
- [Dustin] Look at that. - [James] Do it.
- [Scott] Oh, man. - [James] [bleep] do it then, man.
[Scott] Let me push on that too a little bit.
Did it do anything?
[grunts]
Go, you [bleep]! Go [bleep].
[Dustin] All right. Hold on. Hold on.
[James] Got it.
- [Dustin] Here we go. - [Scott] Come on!
- Come on [bleep]. - [Dustin] Go.
- [bleep]. - [Dustin] It crumbled.
Take a break. Take a break. Take a break. Take a break.
- [groaning] - Set it down.
[James] I need a pry spot down here.
[Dustin] One, two, three.
I got a bite.
[grunts]
[James] Oh, my God. Move.
[Dustin] Get it... Get it... Get it pinned up.
- [James] I got it pinned. - [Scott grunts]
All right, stop. I got it.
It's pinned. Hold on.
Get your breath. Get your breath.
[Scott grunts]
We're gonna leg press this thing right over, aren't we?
[Scott] [bleep] let's get on it, brother.
- [Dustin] James? - [James] Yeah?
I need you to lay down next to us
and put your feet up on this thing.
Let go. See if it goes... Stay in, yeah.
Get a leg press.
It's the leg press machine.
Get you... Get your ass to where you can push hard.
[Scott] Just walk that [bleep] are you ready?
[Dustin] Ready.
One, two, three, go.
[Scott] Walking, walking, walking.
[Dustin] Hold on. Hold on.
- [Scott] Whoa! - [laughter]
[James] Dude, it went through the ice.
The mouth of the ice just exploded.
[Scott] Yeah!
[bleep] we win!
[Dustin] [grunts] nicely [bleep] done, boys!
[Scott] Yeah!
- [James] That was [bleep] - [Scott] Yeah.
[Dustin] Let's get out of here.
This creek wants to kill us.
It wants to keep its gold, and it has kept its gold.
They've known there was gold in this thing
for a hundred years, and it's still there.
Figure that out.
We're doing this.
I don't care how dangerous it is,
we're gonna figure this out.
[narrator] The massive widow-maker cleared from above,
Dustin can now tackle the ice and snow,
freezing them out of their dig site.
[dramatic music playing]
So, we're trying to figure out
how we can melt the snow.
And not only are we not diving,
it's unsafe to actually go up
and stand on ice
over the top of our dig site.
It's a nice, beautiful, sunny day out,
but in the bottom of that creek,
there is zero sun, and, uh,
that ice is not going anywhere.
So, we're gonna have to be proactive
and move the snow ourselves.
Hey. So, what's the... What's the plan for today?
So, today, we're gonna try to melt some snow.
[Carlos] Ah! Awesome, dude. Good deal.
[narrator] In past seasons,
Dustin would already be dredging.
But with time spent on the new camp build,
and the massive ice barrier now blocking his progress,
the precious 20-week mining season
is already slipping away.
We've got to do something. We can't just stand around
and not do any kind of work.
So, uh, we've got to try out
whatever it takes to melt the snow,
because right now, we're not finding any gold
if we're not actually in the creek and dredging.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Salvaging dredge parts from their storage container,
crew fabricator, Wes, constructs a high-pressured sprinkler system.
The pump will suck water from the creek
through an intake hose,
forcing it out through a thinner hose.
This increases the speed
and pressure of the water flow,
allowing it to blast through the ice and snow.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] Hey, Wes!
Did you notice the chunk of snow?
That came from upstream.
Oh, that's probably what brought that alder down.
Those big old snow chunks start melting, it gets bad.
[Dustin] Everybody, have an escape route at all times.
Time to start our journey up creek again.
[tense music playing]
Lean back on a rope when you cross,
and if you see ice, first scream ice, look...
Always be looking for a place to scramble up.
If there's tons and tons of ice, it'll crush you.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin groans]
All right, that's one.
Oh, hey! Don't cross your feet.
Don't cross your feet, man, side to side.
Don't cross your feet. Don't cross your feet.
[James] Holy [bleep] it's moving, boys.
Imagine how much gold's in this.
[narrator] Up ahead.
- Look how fast that works. - [man] Holy moly!
[laughter]
[Dustin] I bought these claims thinking I was smarter than I actually am.
I don't know if we're gonna be able to dig here.
[upbeat music playing]
[Dustin] Is Carlos looking for gold?
Oh, my [bleep] I think it's the first time ever.
- [Carlos] [bleep] Found any? - [Dustin] No.
[Carlos] Holy moly!
[Dustin] Are you looking for gold? [laughs]
[Carlos] I thought I saw something in there, dude.
[Dustin] That's first time
I've ever seen you look for gold.
- [Carlos] Ah. - [Dustin laughs]
[Carlos] I thought--
This is the most pyrite I've ever seen, dude.
I just collected all over the place.
[Dustin] That's beautiful, man.
[Carlos] [bleep] dang!
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] The bag's [bleep] heavy.
I'm out of shape.
This is a dangerous [bleep] area.
It's been a while since I've been in the water like this.
See all that?
[tense music playing]
[breathes heavily]
That was something.
[man] That was crazy.
That [bleep] could hit you.
[narrator] Desperate to get their season underway,
the crew returned to their new Nugget Creek claim
with a plan to melt the huge ice shelf
blanketing their fortune.
- Got it. - Thank you.
[Carlos] I've never seen nothing like this.
Look how thick that is, dude.
[Dustin] Yeah.
A lot of ice.
[Carlos] Hey, can you imagine what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
[Dustin] Oh, my [bleep] dude, this is gonna be full of gold.
[country music playing]
[Dustin] Oi!
The rock's right here.
[Carlos] Oh, yeah?
[Dustin] The impact is right here.
[Carlos] [bleep] I thought you were gonna bring
- this whole thing down, dude. - It looks like a damn crater.
[narrator] But even a 4,000-pound boulder
couldn't smash through the barrier
around their dive site.
I got a feeling we're gonna have a big payday
once we get all the snow out of the way.
[James] Set the pump up down here somewhere on the wall?
We're gonna burn that edge
until that starts to collapse in.
- [Carlos] Okay. Got it. - If we can get up there,
that would be nice
to put, like, a sprinkler setup there.
So, right now, we're about to set up a pump,
so we can pump some water up and melt some ice.
A little ice hydraulic-ing.
All right. Let's get that over there
and fix it in a position.
Spin it so we can put that pipe on.
[James] Okay.
[Carlos] That'll work.
[James] I got the gasket for this.
I think it's gonna work,
but I can't guarantee it.
[Dustin] There it goes.
It's starting to to... Starting to power up.
It's coming.
Let it happen.
There it goes. There it goes. There it goes.
All right. That's a lot of water.
[Carlos] That is a lot of water.
Holy [bleep] look how fast that works.
[man] Holy moly!
[laughter]
Man, the pump's working great!
It's a start, we're cutting the snow.
[Carlos] Today is a mess.
We can clear this whole out, man.
- Be careful. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm always careful.
What we're gonna do is, we're gonna lash it off to one of these.
And just tie it off really good.
And we're gonna let it spray all night,
one spot out there in the middle,
and hopefully overnight,
it'll just burn a hole right through the center,
and this whole thing would collapse,
then we won't be around.
Be like a time bomb.
[Carlos] It's gonna work, dude. It's gonna work.
[Dustin] We can leave this all night.
I hope it works.
Let's get out of here.
It's starting to look dangerous.
[dramatic music playing]
[Dustin] Carlos, you think the sprinklers worked, yeah?
[Carlos] Yeah, dude, I...
Man, I hope it's working.
It should work.
[narrator] Dustin and Carlos return to Nugget Creek
to see if they've managed to melt away the ice barrier.
[Carlos] Uh, it's a lot of freakin' snow.
[bleep].
[breathes heavily]
[Carlos] Not fast enough, amigo.
Not fast enough, man.
Yeah, it's melting. Don't get me wrong.
It's melting, but it's just not melting fast enough.
[Dustin] How thick you think that is right there?
[Carlos] That's at least about 20 feet right there.
Twenty feet of snow, huh? Just won't go, dude.
It's just sitting.
[narrator] The high pressure sprinkler system
is no match for the ice and snow.
And at the rate it's melting,
it could be months before they're diving for gold.
I mean, it's working.
We're cutting ice, but not fast enough.
[Dustin] Not gonna work.
I don't know what else to do.
[Carlos] You have to come up with better ideas.
[Dustin] I bought these claims,
thinking I was, uh, smarter than I actually am.
Now, I can't dig on 'em
because there's too much ice and snow.
I got to think on this.
Carlos, I feel stuck, buddy.
[Carlos] Awesome.
[Dustin] We're getting nowhere right now.
I've never had to deal with this.
It's summer,
and there's still 15 to 20 feet of snow.
I don't know if we could be able to dig here.
This place is...
[sighs] This feels...
Right now, it feels like this place
is out of my league.
That's what it feels like.
I don't know what to do.
I have no idea what to do.
[tense music playing]
[Dustin] Hey, Fred.
Having a whole bunch of trouble.
Yeah, man, I need some help.
[narrator] Next time on Gold Rush: White Water.
[Dustin] That's a grand entrance.
Whoo-hoo!
[bleep] damn, I made it!
- [Dustin] Ready? - [Carlos] Ready!
Oh!
I think this is [bleep] too dangerous.
[Dustin] Got to make some changes.
Got to take some risk.
All the experience in the past
is gonna come to bear right now.
[Carlos] Yeah, Fred!
[Dustin] If there's a will, there's a way.
[grunts] Damn it!
I got hit really hard, man.
I have no doubt that there is a bunch of gold here.
[Dustin] No way. [bleep] that's a damn good sign.
- [Fred laughs] - [Dustin] That's crazy.
Hey, Dustin!
- Hey! - [man] Holy crap!
Found gold!
Yeah, that's some gold, man!