Gold Rush: White Water (2018–…): Season 6, Episode 2 - Into the Unknown - full transcript
Dustin's new Nugget Creek claim is said to hold life-changing deposits of gold, but Dustin and his crew must survive the most remote and inhospitable corners of Alaska to get it.
We have
all of our stuff now?
- Yup.
- Everything we need is in this box.
And, uh, this is us moving in.
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.
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?
- Yeah.
- 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.
Sounds like a plan.
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.
Holy ****.
There's a bear
right there.
That is a bear!
Holy ****
we are way out here.
We're in bear territory.
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.
He is not wanting
to **** move.
Oh, **** we're
getting into a bear's den.
The water here is steeper
than anything
we've ever dug ever.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Watch out. Watch out.
**** -
watch out. Watch out.
Get her out of there.
If I die, I love you guys.
Thanks for joining me
on this adventure.
One, two, three, go.
- That was surreal.
- ****
I know there's
much larger gold here.
It's gonna be
a huge payday for us.
Are you looking
for gold?
I think
it's the first time ever.
And can you imagine
what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
It's gonna be
full of gold.
Hey! What you doing?
Whoop.
Yeah, that got his attention.
Trying to dominate
the area, basically.
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.
That ****
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.
Two weeks ago...
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.
Gambling
his life savings
on claims so remote,
he believes they still
hold a fortune in gold.
They found a 4-ounce
nugget right there somewhere.
But a claim
with this much potential
comes at a cost.
I'm in trouble.
Dude, hold on.
Hold on.
I'll be paying for
this for the rest of my life
if we mess this up
and don't get gold.
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.
Before any
mining can begin,
they need a place
to call home.
- Like that.
- 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.
Crew fabricator
Wes Richardson
and his brother Paul
need to make these
cabins bear-proof.
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."
Oh, man.
Yeah. No, that's not
gonna happen.
That's impossible.
There's no **** way.
I mean, I can **** build
**** 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.
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.
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 **** roots.
Dragging
the 6-ton CONEX box
will push their most
vital piece of equipment,
the dozer,
to its breaking point.
Okay! Let's drag it!
Now, we got some
really tight turns.
Oh.
Who's gonna win?
The tree or the dozer?
**** tree.
Good job.
You got it.
- Oh.
- Come on!
**** damn it!
What happened?
And I knew
that one's gonna happen.
It's just the bolts.
It's just the bolts.
- It's just the bolts.
- 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.
- Yo!
- Hey.
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.
Plan B, the dozer
is gonna use its winch
to pull it all the way up.
Stuck.
Winch is stuck in gear.
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!
**** 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.
That's a ****
powerful winch.
50,000 pounds of
**** going right up there.
That was close.
Whoo! Come on, baby.
CONEX box in place!
**** that was hard.
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.
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.
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.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
Coffee?
The first thing
you got to have in the morning
or you can't **** wake up.
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.
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.
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.
But once we see
that first nugget,
I think that's gonna be
the turning point.
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?
- I got.
- I got mine, too.
All right.
Everybody ready
to see Nugget Creek?
- ****.
- Let's go check it out.
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 **** drop
right now.
- Where that tree is?
- That's the property line.
I think that's it.
I'll tell you once I see it.
No.
So let's go see
what the access looks like.
Huh,
I thought this was it.
I said, "Hey, this is pretty,
we can do this."
No.
This would be too easy.
Looks like
some pretty fast water.
- That's moving, dude.
- Yeah, it's moving.
It's all water
from here out.
Yeah, I don't know
if the water is too crazy.
Nothing I can do.
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.
All right.
Why don't you explore that?
You see if you can make
a trail over the top.
- All right.
- I can walk this, I think.
But, well, let's see.
- Uh, James.
- Yeah?
- You got a shovel to help him?
- 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.
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.
Right now,
the water is raging,
but the harder
it is to get to,
the more gold
is gonna be up there.
I'm back, baby.
- He's smiling.
- This is gonna be ****.
This is gonna be fun.
He's smiling. I like it.
I'm just kind of
zigzagging here.
We're thinking about going
right through here, James.
I wanna go this way.
Through the poison ****.
The mountainside
is packed
with toxic hellebore,
which can be deadly if eaten.
Don't lick my hands.
I've grabbed nauseous weed.
James, I think you
found us a bear trail, dude.
Does it look like
it's dropped down?
Yeah, it does.
We got prints.
Yeah.
There's bear scat right here.
- Is there?
- Yeah.
Oh **** we're
getting into a bear's den.
You have your gun, don't you?
I don't have mine.
Yes, I do.
Hey, don't touch
these **** alders.
Don't touch the alders at all.
There's rocks under them.
They're one
hell of a headache.
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.
Copy.
You're not gonna pull us
upstream, don't even try.
- Got you.
- You cannot pull us upstream.
You need to get to the side.
Copy.
He's gonna hook
into that ****.
You're pretty solid
about your situation now?
Look and listen to this thing.
- Don't break it.
- No. Okay.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay. Pretty confident.
I mean **** and all this
is all loose ****.
- All right.
- Confident as can be.
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.
I'm **** moving
right there.
Got him.
I can't see him anymore.
Holy ****.
Up ahead...
That is
a big damn rock,
that'll kill you.
It's under that ice.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out!
**** watch out,
watch out! ****!
I'm **** moving
right there.
Got him.
I can't see him anymore.
In the raging
whitewater of Nugget Creek.
**** that's fast.
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.
This is dangerous.
It'll **** kill you.
You don't wanna go
downstream and wait
or they fill up
and that's that.
I'm not dying
like this.
Come on!
Come on, man, you can do it.
Come on ****!
- come on!
- He's doing it.
Really crazy.
Whoo!
What?
Crazy ****!
It wasn't easy!
I can't believe he did it.
Holy crap!
Got it good, tighter!
Tighter!
Tighter?
Hey Paul,
can you pull it tighter?
Tighter!
All right, man.
Holy crap, what am I doing?
Slide your feet.
- Slide your feet.
- Oh! Yeah. Got you.
Whoo!
I can't believe this ****
come to Alaska!
You're gonna dig gold!
I did that ****
with no rope!
No rope!
Holy crap, man.
You're a crazy ****!
That was too insane.
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.
Hopefully, those guys can
find a better access up and over the top.
****
get out of my face.
Oh, it opens up
big time here, dude.
- What's that?
- It opens up big time.
Hundreds of feet
above the creek,
James and Scott
search for a safer route
to access their new claim.
Holy ****.
- Wow.
- Holy ****.
That looks like the dive spot
Dustin's talking about.
Wow.
The whole river is
covered in snow, look at that.
Yeah, it is.
We're gonna have to
wait for it to...
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.
Just be careful, man.
Yeah. We get anchored up.
You bang on it.
To me.
Nice and slow.
Careful, Scott.
It's **** 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.
It goes for miles.
There's snow going for miles.
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.
Yeah. It's too much.
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.
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.
I can see him.
Dustin!
They're on a cliff
up there.
- But we could see them?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's **** high, dude.
- About top, top. Top, top.
**** that way, that way.
This ain't it!
It's further up!
Is it really?
He said it's further up,
it's not the spot!
I can just
stick to that, man,
it's just one section!
Just 75 feet
from his claim boundary,
standing between Dustin
and his payday,
a raging section of creek.
****
too strong, man.
That's **** deep
right there.
Oh, my ****
it's under that ice!
****
that's crazy, man.
It's pile
of snow up there now.
Holy **** there's
**** snow up there still.
The snow is
all the way across the creek.
Nearly
every inch of the creek
in Dustin's claim is covered
in a thick layer of snow
that could take
months to melt.
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.
Our gold
is underneath that snow.
Means it's a late start for us
until that snow
gets out of there.
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.
Holy ****
what the **** was that?
That was me.
I rolled the rock.
Are you gonna try
to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out! ****.
- Whoa.
- Watch out, watch out!
Are you gonna try
to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out! ****.
- Whoa!
- Watch out, watch out!
Are you
**** kidding me?
- Are you okay?
- Are you all right?
Oh, my God.
This whole thing
just came out.
Are you hurt?
Get her out of there.
Deep in the wilderness,
prospecting Nugget Creek,
Kayla has been hit
by a falling rock.
**** damn it.
- Are you all right?
- Yeah.
That ****
rock, got to go...
- Get you, didn't it?
- Yeah.
It got my ankle a little bit.
**** this
is **** treacherous, man.
A day's travel from
the nearest emergency room.
An injury out here
could be life-threatening.
That whole ****
gave up, man ****.
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.
Seriously, are you okay?
- Seriously.
- Just a little puffy.
She got a little bit
of a swelling.
You can lose
a **** arm that quick.
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.
- It wasn't intentional.
Now you know.
Didn't think the whole side
was gonna come off.
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 **** hole, it's bad.
Oh, yeah.
That's the spot.
**** just wet.
- Everything got wet.
- 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?
Yup,
that's what we did.
- Find us a trail?
- **** no.
- There's no way.
- So, there's no trail?
- No way in hell.
- Not that way.
- It's vertical.
- Wow.
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.
- Wow.
Somewhere
in that neighborhood.
And we got sights on up creek.
- It's all snow covered.
- Yup.
We ran into snow, too.
But just past that snow
that you guys ran into,
there's like a 20-foot tall
**** ice dam.
You don't think there's any
access at all from up there?
None?
It just gets steeper
and steeper and steeper.
Walking up the creek
is our only hope.
Yup.
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.
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.
I think these will do.
That rock
is teetering, so...
- You guys, is that all we're gonna need?
- Yeah.
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.
Dustin must devise
a plan to uncover his claim
from over 20 feet of snow.
Let's go
check it out.
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?
That is a big
damn rock.
I don't think you could aim
that thing more
at your dive site
if you tried.
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.
I'm gonna tell you,
I am not used to these
big cliffs like this.
It gets inside your head, man.
**** ooh,
I'm sweating already.
I can't look down.
There's always
a fear of falling.
Five hundred feet
above the creek,
James must overcome
his fear of height...
Just don't look down.
...a nd climb
30 feet down a narrow ridge
facing a vertical drop
on either side.
Take your time.
Slow down. Take a breath.
It's shaky.
- Mmm-hmm.
- This is fear.
Feel it. You're okay.
Just take your time.
- Good.
- Okay. I'm not looking down.
Good footing. Good footing.
- Not looking down.
- Good footing.
You're good.
- That was amazing.
- For real?
- Good for you, man.
- I'm not looking...
I'm not looking at...
I'm not looking down.
Nicely done, James.
Nicely done, bro.
Right now, this is...
Holy mother.
- What?
- I think you have to pry that,
- loosen that ****.
- I think you're gonna have to go
dig it out from underneath.
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.
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.
If you fall,
we all fall.
It's that simple.
Not the right way
to do this,
but we're doing it.
This thing's
gonna **** go.
Holy ****.
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 ****
out of there
if it starts to move, right?
This is ****.
Awkward as hell.
I think
it wouldn't be this rotten.
All I got up here
is shale, dude.
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 ****
didn't happen ****.
Let's try to dig it like this.
**** It's falling apart.
Oh. That's teetering though.
Mmm-hmm.
- Look at that.
- Do it.
- Oh, man.
- **** do it then, man.
Let me push
on that too a little bit.
Did it do anything?
Go, you ****! Go ****.
All right.
Hold on. Hold on.
Got it.
- Here we go.
- Come on!
- Come on ****.
- Go.
- ****.
- It crumbled.
Take a break. Take a break.
Take a break. Take a break.
Set it down.
I need
a pry spot down here.
One, two, three.
I got a bite.
Oh, my God. Move.
Get it...
Get it... Get it pinned up.
I got it pinned.
All right, stop. I got it.
It's pinned. Hold on.
Get your breath.
Get your breath.
We're gonna leg press this
thing right over, aren't we?
****
let's get on it, brother.
- 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.
Just walk
that **** are you ready?
Ready.
One, two, three, go.
Walking, walking, walking.
Hold on. Hold on.
Whoa!
Dude,
it went through the ice.
The mouth of the ice
just exploded.
Yeah!
**** we win!
nicely **** done, boys!
Yeah!
- That was ****
- Yeah.
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.
The massive
widow-maker cleared from above,
Dustin can now tackle
the ice and snow,
freezing them
out of their dig site.
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.
Ah! Awesome, dude.
Good deal.
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.
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.
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.
Everybody, have
an escape route at all times.
Time to start
our journey up creek again.
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.
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.
Holy ****
it's moving, boys.
Imagine how much
gold's in this.
Up ahead.
- Look how fast that works.
- Holy moly!
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.
Is Carlos
looking for gold?
Oh, my **** I think
it's the first time ever.
- **** Found any?
- No.
Holy moly!
Are you looking
for gold?
I thought I saw
something in there, dude.
That's first time
I've ever seen you
look for gold.
Ah.
I thought...
This is the most pyrite
I've ever seen, dude.
I just collected all
over the place.
That's beautiful, man.
**** dang!
The bag's **** heavy.
I'm out of shape.
This is a dangerous
**** area.
It's been a while since I've
been in the water like this.
See all that?
That was something.
That was crazy.
That **** could hit you.
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.
I've never
seen nothing like this.
Look how thick that is, dude.
Yeah.
A lot of ice.
Hey, can you imagine
what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
Oh, my **** dude,
this is gonna be full of gold.
Oi!
The rock's right here.
Oh, yeah?
The impact
is right here.
**** I thought
you were gonna bring
- this whole thing down, dude.
- It looks like a damn crater.
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.
Set the pump up down
here somewhere on the wall?
We're gonna burn that edge
until that starts
to collapse in.
- 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.
Okay.
That'll work.
I got the gasket
for this.
I think it's gonna work,
but I can't guarantee it.
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.
That is
a lot of water.
Holy ****
look how fast that works.
Holy moly!
Man, the pump's working great!
It's a start,
we're cutting the snow.
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.
It's gonna work,
dude. It's gonna work.
We can
leave this all night.
I hope it works.
Let's get out of here.
It's starting
to look dangerous.
Carlos, you think
the sprinklers worked, yeah?
Yeah, dude, I...
Man, I hope it's working.
It should work.
Dustin and Carlos
return to Nugget Creek
to see if they've managed
to melt away the ice barrier.
Uh,
it's a lot of freakin' snow.
****.
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.
How thick you think
that is right there?
That's at least
about 20 feet right there.
Twenty feet of snow, huh?
Just won't go, dude.
It's just sitting.
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.
Not gonna work.
I don't know what else to do.
You have to
come up with better ideas.
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.
Awesome.
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...
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.
Hey, Fred.
Having a whole bunch
of trouble.
Yeah, man, I need some help.
Next time on
"Gold Rush: White Water"...
That's a grand entrance.
Whoo-hoo!
**** damn, I made it!
- Ready?
- Ready!
Oh!
I think this is ****
too dangerous.
Got to make
some changes.
Got to take some risk.
All the experience in the past
is gonna come to bear
right now.
Yeah, Fred!
If there's a will,
there's a way.
Damn it!
I got hit really hard, man.
I have no doubt that there is
a bunch of gold here.
No way. ****
that's a damn good sign.
That's crazy.
Hey, Dustin!
- Hey!
- Holy crap!
Found gold!
Yeah, that's some gold, man!
all of our stuff now?
- Yup.
- Everything we need is in this box.
And, uh, this is us moving in.
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.
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?
- Yeah.
- 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.
Sounds like a plan.
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.
Holy ****.
There's a bear
right there.
That is a bear!
Holy ****
we are way out here.
We're in bear territory.
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.
He is not wanting
to **** move.
Oh, **** we're
getting into a bear's den.
The water here is steeper
than anything
we've ever dug ever.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Watch out. Watch out.
**** -
watch out. Watch out.
Get her out of there.
If I die, I love you guys.
Thanks for joining me
on this adventure.
One, two, three, go.
- That was surreal.
- ****
I know there's
much larger gold here.
It's gonna be
a huge payday for us.
Are you looking
for gold?
I think
it's the first time ever.
And can you imagine
what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
It's gonna be
full of gold.
Hey! What you doing?
Whoop.
Yeah, that got his attention.
Trying to dominate
the area, basically.
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.
That ****
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.
Two weeks ago...
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.
Gambling
his life savings
on claims so remote,
he believes they still
hold a fortune in gold.
They found a 4-ounce
nugget right there somewhere.
But a claim
with this much potential
comes at a cost.
I'm in trouble.
Dude, hold on.
Hold on.
I'll be paying for
this for the rest of my life
if we mess this up
and don't get gold.
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.
Before any
mining can begin,
they need a place
to call home.
- Like that.
- 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.
Crew fabricator
Wes Richardson
and his brother Paul
need to make these
cabins bear-proof.
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."
Oh, man.
Yeah. No, that's not
gonna happen.
That's impossible.
There's no **** way.
I mean, I can **** build
**** 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.
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.
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 **** roots.
Dragging
the 6-ton CONEX box
will push their most
vital piece of equipment,
the dozer,
to its breaking point.
Okay! Let's drag it!
Now, we got some
really tight turns.
Oh.
Who's gonna win?
The tree or the dozer?
**** tree.
Good job.
You got it.
- Oh.
- Come on!
**** damn it!
What happened?
And I knew
that one's gonna happen.
It's just the bolts.
It's just the bolts.
- It's just the bolts.
- 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.
- Yo!
- Hey.
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.
Plan B, the dozer
is gonna use its winch
to pull it all the way up.
Stuck.
Winch is stuck in gear.
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!
**** 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.
That's a ****
powerful winch.
50,000 pounds of
**** going right up there.
That was close.
Whoo! Come on, baby.
CONEX box in place!
**** that was hard.
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.
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.
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.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
Coffee?
The first thing
you got to have in the morning
or you can't **** wake up.
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.
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.
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.
But once we see
that first nugget,
I think that's gonna be
the turning point.
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?
- I got.
- I got mine, too.
All right.
Everybody ready
to see Nugget Creek?
- ****.
- Let's go check it out.
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 **** drop
right now.
- Where that tree is?
- That's the property line.
I think that's it.
I'll tell you once I see it.
No.
So let's go see
what the access looks like.
Huh,
I thought this was it.
I said, "Hey, this is pretty,
we can do this."
No.
This would be too easy.
Looks like
some pretty fast water.
- That's moving, dude.
- Yeah, it's moving.
It's all water
from here out.
Yeah, I don't know
if the water is too crazy.
Nothing I can do.
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.
All right.
Why don't you explore that?
You see if you can make
a trail over the top.
- All right.
- I can walk this, I think.
But, well, let's see.
- Uh, James.
- Yeah?
- You got a shovel to help him?
- 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.
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.
Right now,
the water is raging,
but the harder
it is to get to,
the more gold
is gonna be up there.
I'm back, baby.
- He's smiling.
- This is gonna be ****.
This is gonna be fun.
He's smiling. I like it.
I'm just kind of
zigzagging here.
We're thinking about going
right through here, James.
I wanna go this way.
Through the poison ****.
The mountainside
is packed
with toxic hellebore,
which can be deadly if eaten.
Don't lick my hands.
I've grabbed nauseous weed.
James, I think you
found us a bear trail, dude.
Does it look like
it's dropped down?
Yeah, it does.
We got prints.
Yeah.
There's bear scat right here.
- Is there?
- Yeah.
Oh **** we're
getting into a bear's den.
You have your gun, don't you?
I don't have mine.
Yes, I do.
Hey, don't touch
these **** alders.
Don't touch the alders at all.
There's rocks under them.
They're one
hell of a headache.
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.
Copy.
You're not gonna pull us
upstream, don't even try.
- Got you.
- You cannot pull us upstream.
You need to get to the side.
Copy.
He's gonna hook
into that ****.
You're pretty solid
about your situation now?
Look and listen to this thing.
- Don't break it.
- No. Okay.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay. Pretty confident.
I mean **** and all this
is all loose ****.
- All right.
- Confident as can be.
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.
I'm **** moving
right there.
Got him.
I can't see him anymore.
Holy ****.
Up ahead...
That is
a big damn rock,
that'll kill you.
It's under that ice.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out!
**** watch out,
watch out! ****!
I'm **** moving
right there.
Got him.
I can't see him anymore.
In the raging
whitewater of Nugget Creek.
**** that's fast.
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.
This is dangerous.
It'll **** kill you.
You don't wanna go
downstream and wait
or they fill up
and that's that.
I'm not dying
like this.
Come on!
Come on, man, you can do it.
Come on ****!
- come on!
- He's doing it.
Really crazy.
Whoo!
What?
Crazy ****!
It wasn't easy!
I can't believe he did it.
Holy crap!
Got it good, tighter!
Tighter!
Tighter?
Hey Paul,
can you pull it tighter?
Tighter!
All right, man.
Holy crap, what am I doing?
Slide your feet.
- Slide your feet.
- Oh! Yeah. Got you.
Whoo!
I can't believe this ****
come to Alaska!
You're gonna dig gold!
I did that ****
with no rope!
No rope!
Holy crap, man.
You're a crazy ****!
That was too insane.
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.
Hopefully, those guys can
find a better access up and over the top.
****
get out of my face.
Oh, it opens up
big time here, dude.
- What's that?
- It opens up big time.
Hundreds of feet
above the creek,
James and Scott
search for a safer route
to access their new claim.
Holy ****.
- Wow.
- Holy ****.
That looks like the dive spot
Dustin's talking about.
Wow.
The whole river is
covered in snow, look at that.
Yeah, it is.
We're gonna have to
wait for it to...
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.
Just be careful, man.
Yeah. We get anchored up.
You bang on it.
To me.
Nice and slow.
Careful, Scott.
It's **** 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.
It goes for miles.
There's snow going for miles.
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.
Yeah. It's too much.
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.
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.
I can see him.
Dustin!
They're on a cliff
up there.
- But we could see them?
- Oh, yeah.
- That's **** high, dude.
- About top, top. Top, top.
**** that way, that way.
This ain't it!
It's further up!
Is it really?
He said it's further up,
it's not the spot!
I can just
stick to that, man,
it's just one section!
Just 75 feet
from his claim boundary,
standing between Dustin
and his payday,
a raging section of creek.
****
too strong, man.
That's **** deep
right there.
Oh, my ****
it's under that ice!
****
that's crazy, man.
It's pile
of snow up there now.
Holy **** there's
**** snow up there still.
The snow is
all the way across the creek.
Nearly
every inch of the creek
in Dustin's claim is covered
in a thick layer of snow
that could take
months to melt.
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.
Our gold
is underneath that snow.
Means it's a late start for us
until that snow
gets out of there.
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.
Holy ****
what the **** was that?
That was me.
I rolled the rock.
Are you gonna try
to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out! ****.
- Whoa.
- Watch out, watch out!
Are you gonna try
to scale this?
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Watch out! Watch out! ****.
- Whoa!
- Watch out, watch out!
Are you
**** kidding me?
- Are you okay?
- Are you all right?
Oh, my God.
This whole thing
just came out.
Are you hurt?
Get her out of there.
Deep in the wilderness,
prospecting Nugget Creek,
Kayla has been hit
by a falling rock.
**** damn it.
- Are you all right?
- Yeah.
That ****
rock, got to go...
- Get you, didn't it?
- Yeah.
It got my ankle a little bit.
**** this
is **** treacherous, man.
A day's travel from
the nearest emergency room.
An injury out here
could be life-threatening.
That whole ****
gave up, man ****.
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.
Seriously, are you okay?
- Seriously.
- Just a little puffy.
She got a little bit
of a swelling.
You can lose
a **** arm that quick.
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.
- It wasn't intentional.
Now you know.
Didn't think the whole side
was gonna come off.
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 **** hole, it's bad.
Oh, yeah.
That's the spot.
**** just wet.
- Everything got wet.
- 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?
Yup,
that's what we did.
- Find us a trail?
- **** no.
- There's no way.
- So, there's no trail?
- No way in hell.
- Not that way.
- It's vertical.
- Wow.
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.
- Wow.
Somewhere
in that neighborhood.
And we got sights on up creek.
- It's all snow covered.
- Yup.
We ran into snow, too.
But just past that snow
that you guys ran into,
there's like a 20-foot tall
**** ice dam.
You don't think there's any
access at all from up there?
None?
It just gets steeper
and steeper and steeper.
Walking up the creek
is our only hope.
Yup.
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.
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.
I think these will do.
That rock
is teetering, so...
- You guys, is that all we're gonna need?
- Yeah.
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.
Dustin must devise
a plan to uncover his claim
from over 20 feet of snow.
Let's go
check it out.
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?
That is a big
damn rock.
I don't think you could aim
that thing more
at your dive site
if you tried.
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.
I'm gonna tell you,
I am not used to these
big cliffs like this.
It gets inside your head, man.
**** ooh,
I'm sweating already.
I can't look down.
There's always
a fear of falling.
Five hundred feet
above the creek,
James must overcome
his fear of height...
Just don't look down.
...a nd climb
30 feet down a narrow ridge
facing a vertical drop
on either side.
Take your time.
Slow down. Take a breath.
It's shaky.
- Mmm-hmm.
- This is fear.
Feel it. You're okay.
Just take your time.
- Good.
- Okay. I'm not looking down.
Good footing. Good footing.
- Not looking down.
- Good footing.
You're good.
- That was amazing.
- For real?
- Good for you, man.
- I'm not looking...
I'm not looking at...
I'm not looking down.
Nicely done, James.
Nicely done, bro.
Right now, this is...
Holy mother.
- What?
- I think you have to pry that,
- loosen that ****.
- I think you're gonna have to go
dig it out from underneath.
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.
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.
If you fall,
we all fall.
It's that simple.
Not the right way
to do this,
but we're doing it.
This thing's
gonna **** go.
Holy ****.
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 ****
out of there
if it starts to move, right?
This is ****.
Awkward as hell.
I think
it wouldn't be this rotten.
All I got up here
is shale, dude.
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 ****
didn't happen ****.
Let's try to dig it like this.
**** It's falling apart.
Oh. That's teetering though.
Mmm-hmm.
- Look at that.
- Do it.
- Oh, man.
- **** do it then, man.
Let me push
on that too a little bit.
Did it do anything?
Go, you ****! Go ****.
All right.
Hold on. Hold on.
Got it.
- Here we go.
- Come on!
- Come on ****.
- Go.
- ****.
- It crumbled.
Take a break. Take a break.
Take a break. Take a break.
Set it down.
I need
a pry spot down here.
One, two, three.
I got a bite.
Oh, my God. Move.
Get it...
Get it... Get it pinned up.
I got it pinned.
All right, stop. I got it.
It's pinned. Hold on.
Get your breath.
Get your breath.
We're gonna leg press this
thing right over, aren't we?
****
let's get on it, brother.
- 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.
Just walk
that **** are you ready?
Ready.
One, two, three, go.
Walking, walking, walking.
Hold on. Hold on.
Whoa!
Dude,
it went through the ice.
The mouth of the ice
just exploded.
Yeah!
**** we win!
nicely **** done, boys!
Yeah!
- That was ****
- Yeah.
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.
The massive
widow-maker cleared from above,
Dustin can now tackle
the ice and snow,
freezing them
out of their dig site.
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.
Ah! Awesome, dude.
Good deal.
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.
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.
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.
Everybody, have
an escape route at all times.
Time to start
our journey up creek again.
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.
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.
Holy ****
it's moving, boys.
Imagine how much
gold's in this.
Up ahead.
- Look how fast that works.
- Holy moly!
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.
Is Carlos
looking for gold?
Oh, my **** I think
it's the first time ever.
- **** Found any?
- No.
Holy moly!
Are you looking
for gold?
I thought I saw
something in there, dude.
That's first time
I've ever seen you
look for gold.
Ah.
I thought...
This is the most pyrite
I've ever seen, dude.
I just collected all
over the place.
That's beautiful, man.
**** dang!
The bag's **** heavy.
I'm out of shape.
This is a dangerous
**** area.
It's been a while since I've
been in the water like this.
See all that?
That was something.
That was crazy.
That **** could hit you.
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.
I've never
seen nothing like this.
Look how thick that is, dude.
Yeah.
A lot of ice.
Hey, can you imagine
what's in here, dude?
Underneath these rocks?
Oh, my **** dude,
this is gonna be full of gold.
Oi!
The rock's right here.
Oh, yeah?
The impact
is right here.
**** I thought
you were gonna bring
- this whole thing down, dude.
- It looks like a damn crater.
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.
Set the pump up down
here somewhere on the wall?
We're gonna burn that edge
until that starts
to collapse in.
- 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.
Okay.
That'll work.
I got the gasket
for this.
I think it's gonna work,
but I can't guarantee it.
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.
That is
a lot of water.
Holy ****
look how fast that works.
Holy moly!
Man, the pump's working great!
It's a start,
we're cutting the snow.
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.
It's gonna work,
dude. It's gonna work.
We can
leave this all night.
I hope it works.
Let's get out of here.
It's starting
to look dangerous.
Carlos, you think
the sprinklers worked, yeah?
Yeah, dude, I...
Man, I hope it's working.
It should work.
Dustin and Carlos
return to Nugget Creek
to see if they've managed
to melt away the ice barrier.
Uh,
it's a lot of freakin' snow.
****.
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.
How thick you think
that is right there?
That's at least
about 20 feet right there.
Twenty feet of snow, huh?
Just won't go, dude.
It's just sitting.
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.
Not gonna work.
I don't know what else to do.
You have to
come up with better ideas.
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.
Awesome.
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...
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.
Hey, Fred.
Having a whole bunch
of trouble.
Yeah, man, I need some help.
Next time on
"Gold Rush: White Water"...
That's a grand entrance.
Whoo-hoo!
**** damn, I made it!
- Ready?
- Ready!
Oh!
I think this is ****
too dangerous.
Got to make
some changes.
Got to take some risk.
All the experience in the past
is gonna come to bear
right now.
Yeah, Fred!
If there's a will,
there's a way.
Damn it!
I got hit really hard, man.
I have no doubt that there is
a bunch of gold here.
No way. ****
that's a damn good sign.
That's crazy.
Hey, Dustin!
- Hey!
- Holy crap!
Found gold!
Yeah, that's some gold, man!