Original subtitles

♪♪

Dustin: There is been mining here for a 120-ish years,

But now it's just us.

This is my sixth season up here and it's the first time

We've ever been in the situation where we know there's gold.

It's at the bottom of rockfall ravine.

It's big gold, too.

Right now, gold's at an all-time high.

It's $500 more per ounce than it was last year.

The bad news is really hard to get to.

So we got to step up our game.

♪♪

All right, guys.

Today, we're doing something different.

We've never done this before so it may or may not work,

But it is dangerous as hell.

So feeling confident? -No.

I need you to be confident.

This works, it could be an all-time game-changing.

Diver in!

All right, james,

I'm gonna give you these powerheads.

Be very, very careful.

I need you to plant these in the rock

And then get the hell out of there.

All right, let's see what you got, man.

♪♪

So far so good.

-Got it in there? -Yeah.

Wes, you got the trigger, right?

Yeah.

Ready! -Ready!

Three, two, one!

[ explosion ]

Oh, wow!

It cracked!

Oh, my [bleep].

Holy [bleep].

[ speaks indistinctly ]

That's amazing.

Oh! [ laughs ]

[ cheering ]

This is gonna be our season.

Half ounce nuggets everywhere.

Narrator: On the all-new season...

Let's go find some gold.

Man: [ speaks indistinctly ]

Narrator: ...Of "gold rush: White water."

You were ready to die.

Narrator: The dakota boys return to alaska...

This is dangerous. We can't get in there.

Narrator: ...In the richest waters they've ever mined.

I don't care what we have to do.

Going down there and getting that gold.

We got us a bonanza in there.

Narrator: But after a pandemic shut down the world...

This is gonna be a shorter season ever.

We're already weeks behind.

Narrator: There's no time to spare...

So we're gonna have to be brave.

Holy moly.

Narrator: ...Forcing bigger risks...

Oh!

Down to the bone. This is rookie dumb [bleep].

That's the definition of courage right there.

Narrator: ...As father and son hunt for millions in gold.

Man: Oh, [bleep].

Oh, yeah! We got gold!

Narrator: For fred, the stakes are higher than ever...

This might be my last season up here.

Narrator: ...On his biggest gamble.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

It's either freddy's folly or freddy's fortune.

Man: This is the best we've ever done.

Ain't we having fun yet!

♪♪

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪♪

We're back.

Looks like we're gonna be the only ones here.

The rumor that I heard was that fred was three weeks out.

I think he's losing his spark for this place.

Although I gotta tell you

I don't think fred's ever made it here before me.

[ both laugh ]

Narrator: For five seasons,

Dustin hurt's mined alaska's chilkat mountains

With his father dakota fred,

But this year he returns without him.

The covid thing stopped everybody.

Travel was restricted. So we're a month behind.

Narrator: Delayed till June 1st due to the global pandemic,

The crew could have less than 100 days

Before winter freezes them out.

♪♪

Yeah, it looks good. It's great to be back.

♪♪

All right, everything looks good.

Hey, carlos. How's it going, man?

What's going on, brother?

I've been here waiting on you guys for got dang month already.

-[ laughs ] -what took you guys so long?

Well, we would have been here a lot sooner,

But, you know, we've got all these protocols

We have to go through now with the covid and everything.

I hear you.

So now we're a month short on the season.

So what it's gonna take is

We're gonna have to step up our game

Because this is gonna be over before we know it.

Yep.

Narrator: The gold they're after

Lies deep in the chilkat mountains.

For over tens of thousands of years,

The river has eroded the mother lode --

A gold vein hidden somewhere up the mountain.

Nuggets and fine gold

Have been carried down the creek

And deposited in plunge pools

And the giant gold catch at their dive site --

Rockfall ravine.

Late last season, directly above the mighty mckinley falls,

Dustin raced to mine here...

The wrong way to do this [bleep].

Narrator: ...Where...

Aah!

Narrator: ...The crew struck a pile of gold nuggets

Way bigger than anything they'd found before...

Dustin: $50,000 sitting right there.

Narrator: ...Giving them their best season ever.

We found a one-ounce nugget, man.

If it keeps going down, we could find so much damn gold.

We can all retire.

Narrator: Dustin's poured his life savings into these claims,

But for him, it's about much more than money.

Dustin: Everyone's given up on this place except for me.

And in a hundred years from now, I'd love for someone to say,

Oh, that old, dustin, he went up there and showed them,

Everybody told him

There's no more gold left up there and look at him now.

[ laughs ]

Where's fred at anyway? How come he's not up here?

He should be here, right here. If it's a short season, covid.

Dustin: Well, I think about his age.

I'd definitely would be taking a covid thing serious.

Fred's an old guy, man, he could die over this [bleep].

Yeah, alaska doesn't kill a man, the virus might.

Narrator: 2,000 miles south in oregon,

Dustin's 76-year-old dad's mining season

Hangs in the balance.

Ah, well, this virus stuff.

Hey, I know I'm at the susceptible age

And all that stuff, most susceptible, I reckon.

Is the virus deadly like we figure it is?

Yes, it is.

Particularly for certain groups of people like myself.

I worry about you

And I wish that you'd consider

Maybe sitting this one out.

I thought about it.

But it ain't happenin'.

I didn't think... I didn't think it would.

I tried to ask him to stay home

And I knew he wouldn't.

But I'm gonna miss you.

I'm gonna miss you, too.

This will be my 17th season mining in alaska.

I'm not too sure about how many more seasons I got left.

So I don't think I'm gonna let a little virus

Put the brakes on me.

Be careful, yeah?

Careful?

Okay.

[ engine starts ]

Be careful.

♪♪

We're home.

Narrator: Back up north...

Man, I'm stoked to be back.

All right, let's open up.

Narrator: Dustin's crew finally make it

To their mckinley camp

Right now, we're back. We're opening up camp.

There's a lot to do before we can get to the gold.

♪♪

So this is how you get into a door without a key.

I think everybody's just like psyched to be off of the couch.

I mean, everybody's been on lockdown.

And now, we're up here doing this.

Last time I was here a month ago,

It was all snowed in where snow was up this freaking high

And I can actually just jump on top of the roof, man.

We got twice as much snow this last year.

And this covid thing happened.

Gosh, that just turned tables on us.

No jobs was going on.

We didn't know if we was gonna have a season this year.

So, me and the family, we were stressing, pretty much.

The only care I got right now is that we focus on the gold.

So this is for actual survival.

All right, guys, back to work.

I'm excited to get the gold.

Narrator: As the price of gold nears an all-time high...

Let's go find out what's over there.

Narrator: ...The big nuggets it rock full ravine

Could mean a life-changing payday for dustin's crew.

We left last year on the best gold

That we've ever been on.

So, I mean, we're all blessed to get to come up here

And mine this year.

We just gotta get out [bleep] set up and let's get it.

All right, we're going across the cable.

♪♪

Narrator: To get to the gold,

They must first cross a 400-foot ravine.

♪♪

It still gives me the heebies looking at that cable.

Carlos: It just looks more slack every year, man.

That's natural, like,

It should just give you the heebies for a second, right?

No.

You ready? -Yeah.

2020, rock and roll!

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

Narrator: Dustin's crew has used this zipline...

Dustin: Hello, mckinley!

Narrator: ...For four seasons to get to their dive sites.

Dustin: It's exciting, man. Glad to be back.

[ shouts indistinctly ]

Narrator: But for james...

All right, james, you're up, buddy.

You ready for this? -Nope.

Narrator: ...It hasn't gotten any easier.

I don't know why it spooks me out, it just does.

So james is scared of heights.

[ exhales ]

So we'll have to work on that one.

First season, oh, I was scared, I was terrified.

So I understand what james is going through.

Second season, I'm stepping up my game.

Stepping up my game, man.

I have to I'm a part of this team now.

Something I got it used to.

-Are you afraid? -Yep.

Look at this, I'm shaking.

This is gonna scare you, but it's okay, man.

[ exhales sharply ]

Anyway, rules.

Your hands do not touch this cable

Until this thing stops.

You grab up here to stop yourself.

It'll just cut your fingers right off

If you put your hands in front of that thing to stop yourself.

All right?

Three, two, one...Go!

[ grunts ]

Whoa!

[ laughs ]

Aah!

Carlos: You're almost there, you're almost there.

James: Whoa!

[bleep] damn, oh, my balls.

Okay, you can grab it now. You can grab it now!

You can grap it now!

[ bleep ]

I guess I'm going back.

[ line whirring ]

[ laughs ]

Well, when he got across the creek,

I think he froze. He just froze solid.

And he didn't reach up grab the cable to pull himself up.

So he went right back across where he came from.

Dustin: [ laughing ]

You got a long way to go [bleep].

Narrator: Dustin's crew follow in the footsteps of old-timers

Who braved these remote mountain creeks

Over a hundred years ago in search of their fortune.

And at mckinley falls, they found it.

-Look at that waterfall, man. -Looks exciting, man.

This is where the work begins.

Narrator: Here, hundreds of pioneers

Risk their lives to divert the raging river

And access the plunge pool beneath the falls.

Their reward?

Gold worth over $7.5 million today.

♪♪

Dustin: They collected 4,500 ounces in that waterfall.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

Well, I can hear it. It sounds ferocious. [ laughs ]

Holy crap, it's saying, dare you.

Narrator: Just above where the old-timers cashed in

Is dustin's dive site -- rockfall ravine.

Dustin: We need to find out what's at the bottom

Of rockfall ravine? -Tons and tons of gold.

Carlos: Big gold.

I can't wait to get in the water, man.

♪♪

Oh, man.

Oh, man!

What the hell?

That's freaking high, dude.

[ exhales ]

[ bleep ]

It is ugly.

I ain't diving in that [bleep].

This is dangerous. It's straight up dangerous, man.

The season might be finished before you even started.

♪♪

♪♪

I own a mile of land here.

And this is the first time we've ever found big gold

Or any real goal that all.

Just can't get to it right now.

This is dangerous.

People could die.

Narrator: Last winter's snowfall hit a 10-year high.

Now raging meltwater thunders through rockfall ravine,

Strong enough to carry a diver

Over the 80-foot mckinley falls to their death.

♪♪

Dustin: So that's what's down there.

That's a one-ounce nugget

That we found just before it flooded.

We have to figure out how to get in there to get this stuff.

Safely. -Yeah.

♪♪

I ain't diving that [bleep].

Soon as you jump in that you're going right down stream.

Yeah, it's way crazy for

A diver to get in there right now.

It's just way too dangerous.

I get it.

But I don't care what we have to do.

We're going down there and getting that gold.

♪♪

How do we dive in this stuff?

How do we make this safe?

♪♪

What we can do, you know, we're gonna have to put up

A skyline for the rocks if we've got the skyline up

We can mount a winch on the wall and tether a diver.

So if we hear any funny thing going on

We can suck them right out of the water.

Narrator: Wes's plan to conquer the raging water

Build a heavy-duty winch system.

First, anchor in 200 feet of 3/4 inch braided steel cable

Above rockfall ravine.

Second, install winches to safely remove the boulders

That block their path to gold.

♪♪

Then, install a winch to tether the diver

And haul him out in an emergency before he reaches

The 80-foot death drop.

So you get a small winch up there

That will pull human being right out of the water just like that?

-Yeah. -That's a great idea, man.

Yeah, that'll work.

I mean, something like that a fail-safe,

I'll dive in that water.

I need that skyline.

That's our lifeline.

1 to 10, this water scares me to 20.

But with the proper skyline,

I'm back to a solid six and seven.

I don't want to get in that [bleep] water

Unless we have some way of winching me out of the water,

I can deal with that, but right now,

I'm not getting in that water 'cause it'll take me down.

I had a nightmare about it last night,

As a matter of fact.

♪♪

Narrator: A month late,

They should already be in the water

But dustin's crew still have over a week of rigging

Before they can dive for gold.

Carlos and I are gonna go put some anchors in

For the first half of our skyline.

The skyline is gonna be the heart of our operation.

First step says we got to put the anchors down.

Narrator: To install a skyline above the dive site

A rockfall ravine,

They need two solid anchor points,

One directly above mckinley falls

And one 200 feet upstream.

All right, carlos, the place I want to

Drill my anchors is really hard to get to.

Narrator: Dustin starts the hunt for the downstream anchor.

Carlos: There's one right behind you there.

-It's all right, I yell for you. -Got you.

♪♪

Why am I on the edge 200 feet over the waterfall?

For gold, man, for gold.

Dustin: I'm almost where I need to be but [bleep].

There is some loose damn rock here, man.

Lots of it.

Tons of it.

Ow.

This is dangerous.

It's really dangerous.

Hey, carlos. -Go ahead.

So the rock is still just ridiculously loose right here.

I kind of got a little bit of a plan.

What I need from you is hammer drill

And a drill bit. -I'll come down.

Copy that.

All right! Coming down!

-Hey, carlos! -Yes, sir?

There's a bunch of loose [bleep] right here.

So watch out. [bleep] ready to go.

♪♪

Rock, rock, rock!

Did it hit you?

Only a little bit.

All right.

Where are you gonna drill that, right here?

Yeah, I was thinking that. What do you think?

Yeah, that'll work.

-Okay, you ready? -Yeah.

Narrator: The skyline will lift monster boulders

From the narrow ravine

And carry them directly overhead of the crew.

So their lives depend on this 12-inch anchor bolt holding.

Every time he hammers, man, these little rocks vibrate.

-That went in too easy, dude. -Yeah, it did, huh?

Yep.

See that? Oh, my [bleep].

This rock that we're drilling into is just too soft.

Aah!

All right, carlos, I want you to look for solid rocks

Directly below you. -Okay.

I'll be on the end of the rope. So just take your time.

Holy [bleep], man. That's a straight drop.

I got it. Slow and steady, man.

You're not in a hurry.

Oh, man.

Not in a rush, not in a rush.

[ rumbling ]

I heard some [bleep]. What was that?

Ow! [bleep]. What was that?

Oh, my [bleep].

♪♪

Carlos: Holy [bleep], man. That's a straight drop.

Narrator: Six days into a season cut short by the covid pandemic,

Dustin's crew is attempting to install a skyline

On a crumbling rock face

40 feet above their dive site.

[ rumbling ]

I heard some [bleep]. What was that?

Ow! [bleep]. What was that?

Oh, my [bleep].

Damn.

[ groaning ]

[ bleep ]

[ groans ]

Ah, damn, carlos. Holy [bleep].

Hey, carlos.

Got a hospital visit coming or you okay?

[ groans ]

Oh, that [bleep] hurt.

[ groans ]

Carlos to dustin.

What's going on, man?

My head hurts, bro. Holy [bleep], man.

It come down on me hard, man. Scary stuff.

Still worried about you, though.

You just playing tough or are you okay?

Oh, no, I'm not, man.

[ speaks indistinctly ]

Gotta have a little time to myself a little bit.

Copy that.

While I was tightening up the ropes

The wall blew out.

All that right there. My hand is killing me right now.

Thank you, god. Yeah, he was watching over me.

That could've come on my face and my head.

End of season, amigo. End of season.

Ooh. That scared the [bleep] out of me.

Whoo! Still got my heart rate up.

That could have been bad.

Problem is that there's no rock

That's hard enough here to put bolts in.

So I'm going to look for solid rocks

So we can put up our skyline.

See what happens.

Narrator: If dustin can't find a solid anchor point,

He'll have no way to lift the huge boulders

That block their path down to bedrock gold.

Dustin: Ooh, I think I found it.

♪♪

Hey, carlos! I got good news.

I think I found what I might be looking for.

-Right there? -This is it.

This is where I'm gonna be drilling, though, right here.

All right, let's get to work.

[ speaks indistinctly ]

♪♪

There we go.

I think it's time to hang the skyline.

Hey, carlos! You ready to feed me that cable?

Ready!

All right, good to go. Coming on up.

♪♪

How's that? Probably enough, huh?

Yeah.

All right.

Narrator: Dustin secures the 3/4 inch braided steel cable

To the downstream anchors.

-Hey, carlos? -Yes, sir.

I've been trying my hardest to get up and over this ledge

And all the way to the other set of anchors.

Narrator: To complete the skyline,

Dustin must now drag the 190-pound cable

200 feet to the upstream anchor point.

Carlos: I hope this cable's long enough.

Oh, man, if this thing's not long enough,

We have no skyline.

Dustin: James! Get over here and help me.

James: Ah, [bleep].

All right, start gently pulling, gently pulling, gently pulling.

-[ groans ] -it's heavier than it looks.

♪♪

A little bit more.

All right. Stop. The cable is long enough.

Thank you.

All right, let it go down to there. Go, go, go, go, go.

We'll have the skyline up soon.

There we go.

Narrator: Cable attached...

Dustin: We have to tighten that cable up.

Narrator: ... Now the crew must make it tight enough

To support boulders weighing up to four tons.

Carlos: It's tightening.

Dustin: Oh, yeah. That's it. Whoo-hoo! It just got tight.

Operation's good to go!

We got the skyline up. The winch is going next.

And then, we're going diving.

♪♪

Up to pine creek. Here we are!

This year, I've got a little bit of a surprise

For just about everybody.

It's good to be back, though.

Narrator: A week after his son dustin

And despite the life-threatening pandemic,

Fred hurt returns...

Wow.

Narrator: ...For his 17th season mining in alaska.

Well, I see dustin and them already up there.

Yeah, we're falling behind already.

They got a little bit of head start on us.

Yeah, quite a bit. We got a lot of catching up to do.

But I hope to have four people out here.

We have one fellow that may show up.

Hey, look like it might be him.

How you doing? -How you doing, sir?

You wouldn't happen to be scott, huh?

I am, indeed.

-Ah. -Glad to finally be here, man.

This place is amazing.

Narrator: Marine corps veteran scott allen

Is a former firefighter, logger, and commercial diver.

Scott: I've dove before, I've dove tons,

But I've never dredged, never gone after gold or anything.

So this is an entirely new to me.

I got a wife and three kids back home

And we can't afford a house on what we make right now.

So I had to come up here, try and strike it rich,

Go back home, hopefully buy a house.

Well, you ready for some work this year?

That's exactly why I'm here, man.

I'm not gonna let you down.

Well, we appreciate that.

-Yeah. -And we're gonna kick ass.

-Mm-hmm. -Hell yeah.

[ vehicle approaching ]

Hey, fred. Guys.

Hey, what's up?

Y'all made it. How was your trip over, man?

Oh, long, through canada.

We had a hell of a time getting across the border.

What you up to this year?

I wanna mine the, uh,

Trifecta.

I think there's gold there, real gold, and lots of it.

Dustin: This is what we were looking for. It's the trifecta.

Narrator: For two seasons,

Fred and dustin mined the trifecta.

Dustin: Damn, fred, can you believe it?

Both diving mckinley creek together.

Narrator: They fought a hard battle with mother nature.

It's coming up! Bridge is gonna go.

Get out, get out!

Narrator: Father and son also fought with each other

Over the location of the gold.

Fred: We're looking in the wrong place.

You just need to keep going downstream.

There's no gold right there. It's straight upstream.

Narrator: But after digging 20 feet into the creek bed,

They only pulled out 13 ounces.

Fred: I can't believe that that's all the gold down there.

♪♪

We spent two seasons dig in there.

-Yeah. -We got little over 10 ounces.

Yeah, but digging where we dug the last time we were there

Down past that in my mind,

That's where the gold got caught.

But you wanted to go up by the bridge and, of course,

I didn't.

Narrator: The trifecta is on dustin's claims.

So he owns the sole rights to any gold at the dive site.

You know, dustin, this might be my last season up here.

I'd hate to go away without ever knowing if I'm right or not.

I just want permission to go on there.

...Fred. Oh, my goodness.

♪♪

All right, I can't say I agree with you,

But you're more than welcome to go down there.

All right.

I didn't find anything there, but I hope you do.

Hell, yes.

If you hit it real big,

I expect you're gonna break off a piece for me, right?

It sounds like you think I'm gonna find some gold there.

And that's what I want to hear. -All right.

'cause I'm gonna get plenty of it.

Dustin: I can't believe anyone

Would ever want to do that dig again.

It's so deep, so scary,

And it did not prove to have much gold at all.

I...I have no idea what he's thinking.

Fred: I have a big question

As to whether we left it off a lot of gold there.

Dustin: Good luck, fred.

Dustin: Ah, he's skeptical we'll find any gold at all,

But give me four months and let's have a meeting then.

♪♪

-All right, y'all ready? -Let's do it, buddy.

Let's get down to the river.

Here we go.

Hold on to the rope.

Narrator: Now, with permission to mine

Dustin's trifecta claim, fred is determined to prove

He was right about the location of the best gold catch.

Fred: Holy crap, am I out of shape.

Narrator: But it's half a mile further into the wilderness.

I mean, who gets to have a commute like this

To go to work, seriously?

This is badass.

♪♪

Well, here we are, mack, the trifecta.

We named it because it's a bend in the river

Big nice round rocks and it's also got a plunge pool.

Any one of those is great.

You put all three of them together,

You definitely got gold.

Well, there's a lot riding on this one spot, fred.

I agree.

We work for two years here never got a thing out of here.

Well, I could have gone without hearing the part

Where you didn't get anything in two years.

We were totally in the wrong place.

Just gathering all the information together

That I can.

There was a huge waterfall at one time.

The two sides here that was connected and water

Was coming down

And just busting out all of this area down in here.

Any time you have a waterfall, you got a dip in the bedrock.

You got a dip in a bedrock got a good place for catching gold.

♪♪

No [bleep].

So that makes me believe

We got us a bonanza in there.

♪♪

Narrator: Two years ago,

Dustin forced the crew to mine an area upstream.

Fred believes the trifecta was once the site

Of an ancient waterfall.

And he's convinced the plunge pool

That created it is further down the stream.

At the bottom of it, a pile of gold

Worth millions.

♪♪

You know, fred, I just -- I don't know about this.

Narrator: Each crew member spends the season

Diving for a share of the gold.

Paul's two seasons at the trifecta with fred

Left him with nothing.

I mean, two years wasted here

And we're gonna come right back to it.

You know, we got down 22 feet.

We dug a big hole right there.

I don't think we need to spend any more time in this spot.

Bull [bleep]. Look at all this out here.

We never even looked at and it was still getting deeper.

The only place we actually got the bedrock

Is right under that bridge.

Wrong place.

Why didn't you guys look at this area?

Wasn't my decision. -Oh, yeah.

But you know, you're either going to be a hero or a zero

At the end of this season.

I'm worried about it. -I don't plan on being a zero.

I just know one thing, we're gonna have to move

A lot of material as fast as we can.

I mean, fred, if you got a good plan.

Well, you're gonna have to learn how to work smarter not harder.

♪♪

Look, y'all come on over here a second.

We got to talk about that site yesterday.

The big problem is the boulders in there.

The diver is having a pick up every rock

And put it on a basket.

Then I got to thinking it might be a way

We could do this a little more efficiently.

This thing here we use these for the last two

Or three years out here.

And what this is is it we call it a graboid.

It's actually a rock picker,

But what I really got to look at it

Is these things. -Mm, the tines on it.

If you flip let them around

And use this other little piece in here,

We can make one hell of a rock rake.

And we got three of them.

So why don't we...

Make like a giant garden rake out of, so to speak?

Something like that rather than picking a rocks up

Just drag them along.

Narrator: Fred's plan, deconstruct the graboid

And use the tines to form a heavy duty rake.

♪♪

The device will attach to a winch on a skyline system,

Quickly drag the heavy boulders from the riverbed,

And allow the divers to spend more time

Dredging the gold rich material.

So this is gonna be the next generation of the graboids,

Except they're going to be a dragonoid.

Narrator: First, harvest parts.

One step closer.

♪♪

-Right. -How's the bolt twisting coming?

-Very good. -All right.

Wow.

Those are okay, but the tines are big.

I'll run over them with the motor.

This tooth is bent really bad.

So he's gonna take the loader and he's gonna run it over

And try to flatten it out for us.

You know, that's what I call a fred fit.

Narrator: The loader and full bucket

Weighs 7 1/2 tons.

♪♪

Look at that.

Fred: Little bit of a redneck pick.

Big loader, load of dirt, bouncing a little bit, bingo.

Straight.

I think you hit a home run.

Yee-haw!

♪♪

Narrator: Up ahead...

The learning curve here is do it right or die.

Get it, fred.

That thing's gonna be our ticket.

Oh, I can see some gold, man.

Well, you found the first gold of the year.

♪♪

James: What's that?

Narrator: At rockfall ravine...

I got this little metal detector pinpointer

And it's picking up something.

Narrator: ...James is on a treasure hunt.

James: Yeah, there's something in here.

I think what I'm gonna do is go ahead

And get some of this material and find some water

And go pan it out, show the guys.

Hey, guys. -What's going on, man?

Narrator: He believes that gold previously launched upstream

Could've been carried down with the current

And created fresh gold deposits the miners call flood gold.

Oh, you gotta be kidding me.

Yeah, dude, we got some gold, bro.

That's flood gold, guys.

That's amazing, actually,

Because you know that that hole is gonna replenish every year

If it's got flood gold in it. -Right?

Wow, you found the first gold of the year, man.

[ cheering ]

♪♪

Wes, you can get started without me, right?

Yeah.

Mind if I catch up a little later?

-I don't care. -I feel awful, man.

Narrator: Dustin and his crew have installed a skyline

Above rockfall ravine.

Ugh.

Narrator: But now, their leader is sick.

I don't know what's going on.

Whatever this thing is got me tired as hell.

Carlos, how much you think you can handle out there

Without me for a little while?

Uh...

♪♪

Yes, you could tell him exactly where that pulley goes, right?

Yeah.

I might not even make it over there.

I'm sorry, y'all, feel like I'm letting you down.

Narrator: This shortened season means every day must count

If they are to cash in on their guaranteed gold catch.

♪♪

But if the crew is to get any gold,

They must install the winches and pulleys

They need to remove the thousand-pound boulders

That block their path.

Usually, I go do all the cable, rope, all the heavy lifting,

And all that stuff.

Being I'm feeling bad, I have to rely on them to do it.

Narrator: With dustin out of action...

Hey, james, I'm gonna throw you down this end.

Narrator: ...The rest of the crew must step up.

Carlos has learned to be my rope guy right now,

But he's a little clumsy.

Wes can do rope work, but he's more of a ground guy, though.

Poor james is afraid of heights.

It's hard, hard work dangling around on those cables,

But it's time for them to learn what I do.

Yeah, we're just gonna step up our game.

I got faith in y'all.

Right now if we get two winches mounted first

And then we should be able to start putting pulleys up here

Sound like a plan? -Yep.

All right, let's make it happen.

That's the winch right there

That we're gonna take over there, james.

Holy moly.

Narrator: To get the 80-pound winch into place,

James will have to strap it to his back

And climb up the 200-foot cliff.

Feels good to be a part of an elite team.

I'm stepping it up this season

'cause look what we got out there.

We gotta step it up. I gotta step it up.

Hey, james, so one more time, man,

Hang on to that rope, dude, you go down with this thing.

♪♪

Just take your time. Please, please, please, please,

Take your time.

All right, amigo. Rock and roll.

♪♪

I'm a little nervous about james.

But yeah, I'm gonna give james a hand here.

Get in that god dang freaking heavy-ass winch over there.

[ groans ]

[ speaks indistinctly ]

Just in case you fall, dude.

I got a hold of you. You know what I mean?

Ah, what the [bleep]?

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

I can't move, the yellow rope's pulling me back. [ grunts ]

No wonder. [ grunts ]

[ bleep ]

There we go. [ grunts ]

♪♪

There's a flat wall right here, but, ow. [bleep]. That's heavy.

Little heavier than I thought. [ groans ] but made it!

Whew, [bleep].

Yeah! It's over there. Nobody's hurt. All right.

Can find a nice little home for it,

Drill the hole, anchor it in.

James: That looks pretty solid there.

Looking good.

We did it. Good job, james.

James: That was absolutely terrifying.

The hardest part was try to find a flat spot

Put the winch.

I still have a fear of heights

Doesn't mean it's not gonna always be there,

But we're making it happen.

I think I need a beer.

♪♪

All right, let her down.

-That looks pretty good. -Yeah.

Narrator: Fred hurt and his crew

Has less than a hundred days to get gold at the trifecta.

Oh, look, a lot more welding to do.

Narrator: The only way he'll reach the bottom

Is with the dragonoid,

A monster rake

They hope will remove the boulders

That block their path to gold.

This thing doesn't work,

We're gonna be down there wasting a whole lot of time.

And we don't have a whole lot of time this season,

You know, we got started late with the covid and, uh,

Anything we can do to speed it up

And get that bottom and get that gold out,

That's what we need to do.

We're depending on this thing to make or break our season

And so, if this thing doesn't work,

We're in some serious trouble.

♪♪

The graboid is now the dragonoid and we're gonna find out

If we can catch any rocks with it.

Sounds good, buddy. Sounds real good.

Narrator: Time to put fred's dragonoid to the test.

Ready?

-Yeah! -Give her hell.

♪♪

Narrator: If the welds can't hold in the yard,

There's no way they will stand up to the monster

Boulders at the trifecta.

♪♪

Larger holding.

Hey, fred, look at the catching, look at the catching.

Look at that, man, that sucker's working.

It's working well.

We got some rocks.

Get it, fred.

Sucker's working great. That's perfect right there.

Gold dig!

Narrator: The dragoid will save days at the trifecta

And get the divers down to the gold in record time.

Yee-haw!

That thing's gonna be our ticket this season.

Damn right, it's working. [ laughs ]

♪♪

Narrator: With dustin out of action his crew has stepped up

And installed the winches for the new skyline.

I'm going to go on this skyline

And freaking hook up all the pulleys

And all that good stuff.

I really don't know what I'm doing right now.

I can only hope that I'm following dustin's instructions.

All right, here I go.

Narrator: Carlos must now attach a pulley to the skyline,

Which will guide the cable from the downstream winch

Risking his life directly above

What the miners call the devil's bathtub.

A whitewater death trap where the only way out is off

The 80-foot mckinley falls.

Carlos is gonna hang our pulley on the skyline right there so...

I'll run my cable from the winch to another pulley there

Up to this pulley and then it'll go back and forth

Upstream, downstream.

-What's going on, guys? -Hey. You all right?

Ugh, I still feel really sick,

But I couldn't leave my guys come out here

Busting their asses by themselves.

You all right up there, carlos? -I'm good. Back more?

-Just a little bit. -Okay.

So from the first time I saw carlos ever get

All our cable across, he was terrified.

He's a beast up there now.

We taught him how to do this wire stuff.

He got over his fears of the height

And everything and so you see what we got him doing right now.

Carlos got going on, man, no fear.

No, there's lots of fear. [ laughs ]

There's lots of fear. [ laughs ]

The real truth is that you got to be able to do it

Without getting hurt.

There is one way to learn, do it right or die.

I don't know. -That looks good.

-Yeah? -Yep, it looks perfect.

All right, man, it's time to bring me back.

All right, he's gotta climb down,

He's ready to come upstream.

Adios, carlos!

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

Carlos just [bleep] grew a pair of balls right there, boy.

Narrator: The winch and skyline system now secured...

The next step is to get a diver in the water.

Narrator: ...Dustin's crew is another step closer to the gold.

Good job, carlos.

He's a [bleep] nutbag just like me.

Never have I ever thought

I was going to trade places with dustin

Do this crazy weirdo suicide

Skyline deal.

Koo koo ko-chew, bro.

Fire it up.

Narrator: On the next "gold rush: White water"...

Lowering to water!

Whoo-hoo!

Ryan! [ laughs ]

Get on that rope. Get on that rope!

That water will burn the [bleep] out of your hand.

It's beyond cold.

Aah! Oh, yeah! We got gold, man!

This is gonna be our season to just explode.

♪♪