All language subtitles for Gold.Rush.Winters.Fortune.S01E06.Trapped_track3_[eng]

This year's same rain
that caused huge slides
down in Haines,

also moved a lot of gold.

But the mine site might be
completely obliterated.

I need to find out
if all my stuff is smashed
or slid off the hill.

This is a dangerous trip.
There's more snow than
we've ever seen here before.

There's really
no other options
at this point.

And we're gonna get up there
and ensure that we
get another season.

Here it comes.

Woo! Yeah!

Well, that's our ride.

I wanna be able
to start mining
early this year.

I've never had to compete
with this many people

for the little bit of ground
that's out there.

The clock is ticking.
I need to find some ground
and I need to find it fast.

After disappointing prospects

at Chino Valley
and Gillette mine,

Dave's gone north

to meet claim owner
an amateur prospector,

Chris Chrisman.

The guy that I'm meeting
actually comes up here
on his time off

and he's getting
a lot of gold.

Dave plans to prospect

an 80-acre claim
in More's Creek, Boise County.

The Idaho City claim

is packed
with a gold-rich history.

Despite almost
three million ounces of gold
being mined in this area

between 1863 to 1959,

it's estimated there's
still life-changing gold
waiting to be found.

Dave has scheduled
just four days to prospect
the huge claim.

To keep on schedule,
he's called in some help.

Dave!
- Juan, good to see you.

You know, taking
this thing off road
voids its warranty, right?

- Nice to meet you. I'm Chris.
- Chris.

Kind of a remote
little place, huh?

Look what
you're standing on.

Oh, yeah.
All the tailings, huh?

Yeah, there's
definitely gold here.

Yeah, the average
is about a gram a yard.

[bleep], that's getting
hard to find. That's getting
real hard to find.

Well, I'm excited, man.
- Yeah.

Let's get out there
and check it out.

So, what do we got
here, Chris?

The bucket dredge
came back here

between the early 1900s
to about the 1950s.

They worked the valley
basically from bank to bank.

Those bucket dredges,

- I've been in behind them
and they're pretty good.
Yeah.

But why didn't they mine
right here?

From what I found,
is there's that big shelf
right here

and it comes up
really steep.

I think they
stopped at that.

- Okay.
- Yeah.

So, there might be bedrock
up this high that they
couldn't get to?

Yes. And they also got
the bench up there,

which is even richer
than this stuff down here.

There's bench gravels?

And the best part
about the bench up there
is that

there's virgin ground
up there.

You're sure they didn't...

they didn't hit that up
there, too?

I'm positive.

Virgin, like, but is it...
Does it pay?

Yes. Yeah, that's
where the best gold
we found is at.

Why don't you take
the excavator up there,

pull some samples?
Let's take a look.

Sounds good.
- All right.
I'm gonna talk to Juan.

- Let's go.
- See if he's got
the plant going.

I'm pretty confident
about the land here

because I've always found
a piece of gold.

I think it'd be great
if Dave and I work together.

I think the equipment he has
and my experience
and equipment,

We could... I think
we could really make
something work up here.

So, what do we got, Dave?

- You think you
can work on it here?
- Perfect spot for it.

What would happen
when we ran the beetle
in Arizona,

I got into some real
heavy sticky stuff...

Yeah.
-...and as we dumped it
in there, it would stall out.

So, if we have
a bigger sprocket,
it should take care of that.

Earlier this season,

Dave and Juan
built a pioneering
prospecting plant,

"the beetle," designed
to bulk test ground more
efficiently and accurately,

but it ran into trouble
when it lost power
on its maiden outing.

Nathan!

It stopped turning!
- We don't have enough RPMs.

The motor
uses a gear chain
between two sprockets

to turn the conveyor,

but the system
is underpowered.

By replacing
the large sprocket
with an even bigger one,

it will increase
the gear ratio

and boost the power needed
to turn the conveyor belt.

If we could run this tomorrow,
it'd be great.

It's not gonna be
show quality,
but it'll work.

As Juan gets to work,

Dave's right hand men,
Jason Sanchez,

hunts for the first
test site.

Right now,
I'm gonna follow Chris

and we're gonna go
and try and check out

this bench
that he was talking about.

Up here, Jason.

Are we going
left or right?
- Going straight up.

This will be
the fun part.

This is probably
the sketchiest
spot on the claim,

especially with the ice and snow.

Look at it dance.

Almost!

Yeah, yeah, there we go.

- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, buddy!

- Yeah!
Ooh, that was heavy
for a minute, but...

Yeah.
- We made it, man.

Chris has brought Jason

to an area at the top
of the valley
called "The Bench."

These areas hold deposits
of gold left behind
by changes in the river.

Over thousands of years,
water flow erodes
the riverbed

and cuts downwards,

leaving rock and gold
on the banks known
as bench gravels.

All right, you can even see
a color change there.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

That makes
for really easy mining.
Oh, yeah.

- Nice find, buddy.
- Thanks.

Very nice find.

I gotta get
in that hole.

What's up, Dave?

Nice little zone.

Look at this.
There's our bedrock.

So, we pulled
three samples.

Three different levels
from that bench gravels.

Let's see if it's got
some gold in it.

That's pretty damn good
for a first pan.

For a first pan, yeah.

This is two feet above.

There's, at least,
20 there.

Oh, wow.
- That's even better.

Yeah.

That's minable, Dave.

I'd mine that.

This is a great start
to a prospect.

It was some pretty damn
good gold

sitting up
on that bench gravel.

Well, I'm excited to run
some material through there.

Yeah.
- I am too.

I mean,
this could be the land.
There's virgin ground here.

Now, the hard work
comes tomorrow when we
start running it.

I hate helicopters, dude.

You agreed to come
out here.

Gold divers
Dustin Hurt and Carlos Minor

are on a midwinter mission
to reach their isolated
McKinley Camp,

which lies high
in the snow-clad
Chilkat mountains.

Last season...

That's
some good-looking gold, man.

they struck
a rich streak of gold,
earning them a big payday.

Record winter floods
bring promise
of even more gold.

But if the recent storms
and landslides have damaged
their cabins and equipment,

there might not be
a season at all.

So, we gotta go up and check
see how much snow is
on top of the cabin.

If it's completely smashed,
we're screwed,

and we won't be able
to mine.

After a failed attempt to reach
the site on a snowmobile...

It's not moving.

Oh, you
are not gonna like this.

That is your drive belt.

they have a new plan,
snowboard into camp.

They pulled in a favor
to get them as close
as possible.

Hey, Jag.
How's it going?

Thanks for saving
our ass yesterday.

Without the helicopter,
would have been stuck out
there for sure.

Looks like you're all
ready to go.

I can pop you out there,
give you a little bump
as the boys say.

Okay. We're gonna take
a ride, see what we see.

Let's load up.

Jag will drop
Dustin and Carlos

on The Chilkat
Mountain Range.

Then, they'll snowboard
roughly one mile down
to McKinley Camp.

If the cabins are secure
and the mine site
checks out okay,

they'll make
a mile-long hike
down the mountain

where though radio Jag
for pick-up.

The helicopter won't be able
to land after sunset.

If they don't make it
by then,

they'll be forced
to stay the night.

Oh.
There you go.

Let's rock and roll.

All right.
There it is right there.

and there's so much snow,
I cannot tell
what's happening.

There's no way for me
to know what kind
of damage has happened.

Oh, man, look at that.
Up ahead, man.

- That's buried, bro.
- Oh, yeah, that's
an avalanche right there.

That's scary.

This is why you don't work
up here during the winter.

Looks like
there's a spot over here
I can get you guys in.

This is your
go, no-go situation.

- Are you both in?
- You all right, Carlos?

Not really. But yeah,
let's just do this, man.

I'll drop you.

You're pretty much on your own
unless you can start
a signal fire.

But if I don't hear from you
for two or three days,

I'll come looking
for where your tracks stop.

Yeah, I don't need
to hear that stuff, man.

Woo-hoo!

Whoo!

Yeah!

- Look at this place.
Okay, yeah.

Yeah!
Wow.

Look at this.
Wow, man.

Look at this place.

Look here,
camp is down there.

We couldn't pick
a better route, man.

Dustin and Carlos
have just six hours
to complete their mission

before it's too dark
to be picked up.

Watch out for holes, trees,
underground stumps
sticking up.

This powder stuff, dude.
This is a whole new
frickin' animal, bro.

- I... I'll go first.
- Okay, yeah.

I'll follow you, dude.

Come on.

Oh, man, that's nice.

How awesome is this, man?

Look at this place.
It's beautiful.

Woo-hoo!

Do you think
you can get up?

You got a track
and everything.
It scared me, man.

It's a few spots here
that's just not steep enough
to get down.

We'll get trying to get
to the steep stuff.

So it's hard...

navigating this
because it just
doesn't pack down.

- Carlos?
Yeah?

Pack everything.
Pull it in, pack it

- so you push it
under and stand up.
Okay.

This sucks.

You are not
having fun, are you?
No, not having fun.

I'm going.

Wow.

No, no, no... Come on.

You're not steep enough.

Oh, that sucks, man.

Come on.

Oh,

Oh, that sucks, dude.

Come on.

Oh,

Oh, dude.

Anything broken?
No, no, no.

I'm glad you're okay
'cause there's nobody
gonna help us out here.

In Alaska, Dustin and Carlos
are snowboarding a mile

to McKinley Camp
on an expedition

to check their cabin is safe
after heavy rain

and snow triggered landslides
and avalanches in the area.

It'd be dark
before we make it
to the cabin, man.

- Are we gonna make it?
I have
no choice, right?

If they can't make
the heli evacuation point

before sundown,
in four hours' time,

the team will be forced
to stay overnight

on the mountain
in subzero conditions.

So, I'm scared
for you right now.

It's trees.

You're gonna have to show
a little more control.

[bleep], yes, man.
I'm miserable, dude.

Focus up, man.

Be... Be careful, man.

Getting real.
And all this
was funny.

This ain't funny.

Just get your breath, man.

After four hours
on and off their boards...

Ah, it's good
to be home.

Dustin and Carlos finally
reach McKinley Camp.

Dude, that was
the roughest track ever, man.

That whole thing is sagging.

It sure is, isn't it?

But the cabin
is completely buried by snow.

- I can't tell if the roof
is smashed in or not. Can you?
No.

The only way
to know if their cabin
and equipment is safe

is to get inside.

If we just dig out the doors
and if it sloughs off,
it'll pen us in.

So, we gotta get this snow
at least off from over the top
of the doors.

And it's gonna get
dark soon,

so let's not get caught
in subzero degrees.

I am cold.
Started getting there.

Well, you know
where they hide the heat?

- Yeah.
Shovels.

All right, man.
Let's start digging.

What I was worried about
was this whole hillside
falling off the mountain

and it's still here,
but, hopefully,
it's not destroyed.

We've got a lot to do,
a whole bunch of digging.

It's a... It's
a little bit scary.

Oh, man.

You know what? It's hard, too.
It's iced over.

Oh, man, this
is gonna be a long day.

Whether or not
we open the door to mining
or close it forever,

there's everything riding
on this offseason.

If we do pull this off,
it's gonna be frickin' huge.

In the desert of Arizona,

Fred Lewis is on a mission
to secure his mining future.

After striking out
at the Lovelock
in Dun Glenn claims,

he must find
gold-rich ground
before next season

or his career
as a miner is over.

Kyle, you
on the station?

I think, like, going crazy.
We're on the road too long.

We've been on the road
for weeks now? Months? Years?

I don't even know
what day it is. Where am I?

On the team,
our fellow military veterans,

Kyle Pletzke
and Fred's wife, Kara,

joining them
is Fred's father-in-law,
Fred Miller.

So, this area it's called
the Big Bug and the spot
we're going into

- has produced
some good gold.
- Sounds pretty interesting.

One thing I hope this place
doesn't live up to
is his name of Big Bug.

Fred's team
are pinning their hopes

on a nine-acre claim
called Big Bug

located just 12 miles
from Dave Turin's
old claim, Lynx Creek,

where he mined
170 ounces last season.

Before Big Bug
turned into a ghost town,

it produced
over 50,000 ounces of gold,

worth upwards
of $90 million.

And the team's hoping
the old timers
left some behind.

Here we go. For sale.

Hey, Fred.
- What's going on, brother?

With the claim too small
for team Turin,

Dave's let crew member
and army vet, Casey Morgan,
share it with Fred.

Welcome to Arizona, guys.
Lots of gold here.

But the main reason
it didn't get all mined

is because there's not
a lot of water in this state.

I got this property
from Chris Matherne
and Big John

that wouldn't be big enough
for the operation we run,

but it might fit
your needs.

Okay.
- So, let's go take a look.

So, there's
a lot to determine
when it comes down

to what claim is gonna be
most beneficial in mine
this season.

I think that a good
100-ounce season

would be
really good for us.

But on some of these claims
that aren't turnkey,

that require a lot more work,
we probably have to pull in,

you know,
one to five hundred ounces

to make it worth our...
worth our effort.

When you know
what kind of gold
you're pulling up?

It's very similar
to what we got at Lynx Creek.

Nice, good particle size
from smaller nuggets.

- The purity is important.
Right.

- 93 to 94% pure here.
Really? Wow.

So, you may not have
to mine as much as you
would in Alaska

to get
the same dollar amount.

So, there's a good opportunity
here for you guys.

So, the best thing
we can do now

- is find out where we're
gonna do some test holes.
- I know Big John

who owns the property,
has an excavator.

- He can bring that down,
rip us open a trench.
- Might be able to save

a little bit
of time and money

- if we started out
using this hand auger.
- How big is a hand auger?

This is a light hand
operated unit

that essentially costs
nothing to run.

Okay, if you've got
something here that can help,
let's get started.

All right.
Let's do it.
- Yep.

I do environmental
soil testing.

We normally use
the auger to dig down
and find contaminants.

Well, it's no different
than digging down

and finding things
that we wanna keep.

For running the excavator
it's gonna cost us money,

so this is an attempt
to save on our budget
and still get us

the look at the gold
in the ground here.

With a budget
of just $3,000 per prospect,

Fred hopes he can use
his father-in-law's auger
to pinpoint test sites

before bringing in
a costly excavator.

This does
exactly the same thing
as a drilling rig.

Just the motor
works off manpower.

All right, Fred, show us.

It's moving.

How long do you think
it would take to get a...

10-foot hole at this pace?

Oh, three to six months.

The whole bull
will try to use that.
That's cute and everything.

But let's face facts,
they need to get real,

and they need to get
a big machine in here
and start digging holes.

Fred, there's
this unique device
called an excavator.

It will get us down
and get us the results
we need.

We've got pretty much
a full pan here.
You wanna go and pan this out?

I think so.

[Fred #1] At least, we'll get
a good read of what
this surface stuff has.

I'm not disappointed
that it didn't work.

That fully met
my expectation

because that's not
the type of soil

that the tool's
meant to excavate.

[Fred #1] We're trying
to be really frugal

and bring in different tools
to save money,

but this auger
is not gonna work here.

You just gotta try out
things once in a while.

You gotta think
outside the box.

So, here's the reality.

No one helped me
in the beginning.

Most miners kept
everything to themselves

and I know what that feels
like to lose a lot of money,

and everyone turns
their back on you.

But you need to be able
to realize that you need to
get in here with an excavator,

you need to dig down
and start being able to
read the ground.

Keep it simple, stupid.

Three, four colors.

Off a surface test?
I'll take that
any day of the week.

Heck, yeah.

I mean, you're already seeing
surface gold.
The auger attempt was cute,

but the reality is,
you need to hit it hard.

Yes.
- So, you start seeing
what's in the ground.

Well, I like this kind of gold
and I like what you're saying.

So, we should just basically
move to the excavator.

You know, that's
our first test site
on this claim.

And we're already seeing
better gold than we've seen
in any test pan

we've done this trip.

So, punching some more holes
obviously will tell us more.

We could be on
to something here.

Two thousand miles north,

Dustin and Carlos are racing
to free their cabin in time

to reach the evac point
by sundown.

It's not looking good
right now.

Hey, Carlos, this is taking
longer than I thought, man.

We need to know the damage
before the season starts.

I can't afford
to go buy all new gear.

I think we're gonna have
to stay up here tonight.

There's no way
we're gonna be able
to make it out right now.

Let's figure out
if we can get in.

I just don't want
this thing to collapse on us
when we're in there.

If they are going
to survive the plummeting
Alaskan temperatures,

they will need
shelter and heat.

But the only place
that might keep them safe

is buried
under almost 20 tons of snow.

Holy, jeez.

This is solid frickin' ice.

If we can't get this door open
in time, we're gonna freeze.

This is a frickin'
survival nightmare.

I gotta get this door open.

I got high hopes
because, well...

if I don't get it open,
I might just die.

This has to happen.

I don't wanna take
no deep freeze sleep.

With the temperature
dropping like a stone,

Dustin and Carlos's
recon mission
to their mining camp

has turned
into a fight for survival.

To make it
through the night,

they must get shelter
in the cabin.

I've never been so happy.

Hitting the bottom
of the door, man.

It's like hitting bedrock.
Just gonna open it up.

This is ice, man.

Come on.

You're not gonna give up
that easy, are you?

We have to bring shovel,
it's iced in on the bottom

and I can't get that lift
to come loose.
Can we break that ice away?

Yes.
So, I get
that lip out, maybe?

The wooden security board
across the door

is frozen in place.

Yeah, no.
It's real ice.
Like solid ice.

Let's see.

Come on, ice.
Just won't let go.

So, it won't come out
this way unless we break it.

Push up.
- Let me catch my breath.

Can you put
your leg right there?

Break it.

There it goes.
There it goes.
Here it goes.

Yeah.

Okay.

you.
- Oh, [bleep], dude.

I'm running
out of steam, dude.

Whoa, whoa, whoa...

All right.

Home sweet home.

Come on, baby.

Yes!

Oh, my

That was a lot of work.

Way better than gold
at this point, man.

Way better than gold.

It looks like the roof
is intact.

I am glad that we
took off a bunch
of that weight, though.

I'd hate to be
in here sleeping,
and it crushes me tonight.

Ooh, come on, baby.
Oh,

This is our main base.

We work here.

If it went down,
we just simply
wouldn't be able to mine.

We need it for the season
to happen.

And what it would end up
doing is stopping us
for a season.

I thought it would be smashed
by the time I got here.

And I'm glad it wasn't.

You can't pay the bills if you
don't get any gold at all.

When I get back home,
man, I can't tell them
what's the truth, man.

I'm gonna say, "Hey, man.
It was awesome. You know,
we were eating s'mores

and it was a good time."

- We got some heat!
That's luxury.

I feel better already.

Damn, man.

Did you snowboard
in jeans today?

Well, yeah.
Man, you are
just not a snow guy.

Chili mac with beef.

I'm glad that we keep
that emergency food.

Mmm. Yum.

This is
a successful day, man.

We didn't die.

We got food, we got heat,
we got shelter.

We'll check out
the dive site tomorrow, man.

My goodness.
How did the snow
get so frickin' deep?

One and a half thousand
miles south,

a new day has brought
Dave and his crew
a fresh problem.

We got a lot of snow
this morning.

Kind of cold, frozen.
Not ideal.

Deep snow
has made traversing
the steep valley

to the bench site
impossible.

The team must push on
with prospecting
other areas of the claim.

This snow
is such a pain.

We can't see under
the snow

to even read where to pick
a hole right now.

I'm gonna have to open up
probably, you know,

more holes, more consistently
to be able to read it.

Well. Yeah, remember,
we can only dig three holes.

What do you...?
What do you mean?

So, I know like,
we had the idea that we
could dig a hole

and then do another hole.
But like, rereading
the permit,

we can only dig
a total of three holes.

But...

there's 80 acres here.

Just... So does our hole
that we already did
up there count?

Yeah, I think...
Yeah. Pretty sure.

That's...
That's considered a hole?

Yeah.
- We didn't take any out
the sample with it, though.

Yeah, we only got
a little bit out.
But, yeah, we can't do them.

So, we've got two shots
on 80 acres.

Yeah,
that's unfortunate,

-'cause there's
some good stuff up there.
- Yeah,

we're in trouble
right now.

I didn't anticipate that.

By scratching down,
digging a trench,

that was considered
a disturbance.

And the snow is really making
it difficult to determine
what I'm looking at.

I can't see
where the virgin ground is.

We're allowed
at this point three holes.

It's only here
that I've ever
experienced that.

And after discussion
with Chris,

it's not everywhere
in this state
that that's the way it is.

Just happens to be
in this particular county.

We've got a lot of snow.
Jason, you gotta find
a place to dig

'cause I can't go
to where we found the pans.

I can't... I can't get up
there in the snow.

We gotta find a place
to dig here.

A place where we can
actually pick up the dirt
and deliver it to this plant.

Looks to me
like you got a waterway
down there, hand working.

If you tried to get in there
and see if you see
some river gravels,

maybe to the left to that...
those two trees.

Okay, that makes sense.

- If I find pay,
we'll wash it.
- Okay.

If I dig two holes
and there's no pay,

I've ruined
this entire prospect.

No pressure.

At the beetle,

Juan has swapped out
the sprocket,

giving the plant more power
to bulk test pay efficiently.

That looks good.

Just floated down.

That looks
a lot better, Dave.

Oh, yeah.

It's ready to run.
We gotta move it into place

and hopefully they'll be able
to start testing
this afternoon.

With the plant all set,

it's down to Jason
to find virgin pay.

I hate to fail.

Your boss is looking
at you going,

"Go find us
a place to dig."

And you're looking
at snow.

And knowing you only got
two shots of finding
that place

doesn't build
a lot of confidence.

The worst thing
that can happen
during an offseason

is that you don't find
a property to go to.

If you're not bringing in
the gold,

you're not bringing in
any money.

That's how I pay my bills.

Wait, that looked...

it might be virgin
in there.

Is that virgin
or is that tails?

What the hell?
No way.

I got real problems.

We're rolling the dice
to see if we can find gold.

Dave Turin is prospecting
the Idaho City claim,

but heavy snowfall overnight
has made reading the ground
almost impossible.

This snow
is about the worst I could get

'cause everything
blends together

and it's hard to distinguish
between what's been mined
what hasn't been mined.

Jason is hoping their gamble
in the second hole

has led them
to virgin ground,
and more importantly, gold.

I got bedrock
sitting on the bottom
of the bucket from my dig.

So, I know
I'm down deep enough.

Now, I just gotta crawl in,
find out.

That's overburden? Tails?

It's just looking...

I don't know.
I better get closer.

This has rock.

I don't know
what it means yet,
but I have topsoil, clay.

But this is old school virgin,
I think. Like, deep virgin.

It's hard to tell.

The only way
is to run a pan.

Jason takes
two pans of dirt,

one from halfway down
and one from the bottom.

Absolutely no gold in this pan.

That bottom pan is the one
that I'm curious about

'cause I'm willing to bet
that that's virgin.

But we'll see.

This prospecting trip

is pretty much
our last Hail Mary.

If we can't lock down
a good piece of ground,

then we're dead
in the water.

Fred Lewis and his team

are prospecting
Big Bug claim.

After striking out
twice in Nevada,

everything rests
on this third
and final planned prospect.

My team all has families.

They all have personal lives
that they're depending
on this to work

so there's everything
riding on this.

Helping fellow vets
on the prospect

is Turin team member,
Casey Morgan.

Let's look at this real quick.
You gotta dry creek bed.

So, what happens
is that water's flowing,

imagine that's
just hauling ass.

The gold comes in,
where it calms down

and slows down, the gold
drops out right there.

Your heaviest gold
is always your inside bed.

This hasn't been mined
and you can work
all the way down here.

Casey's walking
the excavator in.

We're looking for gold
and water in this hole.

To increase their chances,

claim owner, John,
is letting Fred use
his 30-year-old excavator...

There she comes.
She's running.

to investigate
an old creek bed.

For the ground
to be minable,

it must hold good gold,
but also have a steady supply
of water for the wash plant.

She's flowing in, boys!

That's what I'm looking for.
Hey!

We got a sample
out of that,

but I'm gonna need it
down where he just
can't dig anymore.

Yeah.
- And that's where we're gonna
find the good stuff, baby.

Right now, we're
seeing that the pay level's
not too hard to get to

and we've hit water.

We can let this fill up
and see how fast the waters
slow once we're done

getting the material
out we need.

So, we're right where we need
to be, a little deeper.

With just the right amount
of water showing,

all Fred and his team need
now is for the hole to pay.

I get so excited.
I see ancient river gravels...

Like that...
That gold fever moment
just kicks in.

It gets me so pumped up.

I love this

Let me go look
and see how deep he is.

- Oh,
That's a lot of water.
Oh, wow.

I've been waiting
to see some good gold here.

All trip we've been waiting
to see water.

And right now, we've got both,
but the tough thing about it

is you don't really
wanna have to run
wet pay there.

It's gonna screw up
a lot of your machinery.

So, one question answered,
but another problem arises.

We're just gonna do
the best we can
in the pans we got

and give a fairly
as accurate read as we can.

You know, we put
a lot of time and effort
into this trip,

and I feel like
this right here is
where it's all worth it.

Getting that gold fever
feeling back in my fingers.

The three of us
are gonna walk up in and...

pan it out
and see what we got.

So, we have
a lot of priorities,

we're focusing
on these prospects.

Number one priority is
we've got to look at ground

that has one ounce a hundred,
$8 a yard.

If we can't do that,
we're just wasting our time.

- Look there.
That's
a good size one.

- Oh, there's
a bunch of them. Three.
Yeah. Right there.

- Oh, four.
- Four.

We got
four colors in here.

It's about
$4 a yard.

To make this mine viable,

Fred and his crew
want, at least
eight bucks of gold a yard,

but the team
are running out of time.

They need
the final hole to pay,

or Big Bug
and their mining future
will be a bust.

The ground here
looks right,

but we're just not seeing
the results.

Put the excavator downstream.
We're starting to see
our larger boulders come out.

Bigger boulders
means bigger gold.

That's what
we're looking for.

I felt myself change
a little bit on this trip,

I feel a little
more pessimistic
than I usually am,

but it's important
to keep your mind
focused on the end goal.

We've gotta find ground
that is viable for us
to mine.

I want you to grab one
from around over there.

This is more
of a blended test.

Last season
was a dismal failure

and we're not doing
that again.

I've sold a lot of things
I own to make this happen,

so I've got more skin
in the game on this offseason

than I've had
in anything in my life.

Yeah, I'm really excited
that we get to have
this opportunity

to actually prospect
this year,

but it is a possibility
that we don't find ground.

We're seeing gold here,
but so far not enough.

So, we need to see
a good result.

Let's not let gold fever
go to our brain, okay?

It's more failures
than successes
in this business.

You get that gold fever
rolling in your brain

and it can costs you
everything.

I'm trying to give
Fred Lewis and his crew

the advice that I wish
somebody would have gave me

because if they keep going
the way they're going,

they're gonna wind up
completely bankrupt.

No doubt about it.
It's a mathematical certainty.

And let's be logical here.

Our obstacles are,
you're gonna have to clear
15 feet of overburden

and then you're going to get
down to where the pay is
and you're gonna hit water.

You could possibly
seek machines.

I mean, be realistic,
what's your season goal total
you wanna hit?

Right now, I think our line
is like $8 a yard.

And even at $8 a yard
moving all that overburden,

having to set up from nothing,
really $8 a yard probably
isn't gonna be enough.

- You're gonna have
to look at even higher.
- Yeah. You might be right.

So, unless we see
some great numbers
out of this last pan,

I think we have
our answer then.

Right there.
Look at this.

One, two...

small micro fine particles.

That is not going
to pay your bills.

Not the number we need.
Definitely not the size
we need.

No.
- I don't think setup
we want either.

No, I think right now,
we should just call it.

So, got done
testing the ground,

but I didn't see
a lot of color in the pan.

I'm not gonna steer Fred
in the wrong direction.

The worst thing he can do
right now after coming off
a rough season is have a...

have a another
rough season.

We got
some thinking to do,

and we have to sit down
as a team and figure out
we're gonna do next,

but I really don't know
what the next move is for us.

In Idaho, Dave is off site,
visiting local Grant Hawk

to find out if the old dredge
could have left the team
any virgin ground.

You know
a lot of the history?

Well, I've been around here
a long time.

And I remember
coming here as a kid,

sitting in the backseat
of my parents' car.

The dredge was down here
by the highway.

They would have to move
the road around,

keep it out of the way
of the dredge.

If the dredge wanted
to dredge somewhere,
that's what happened.

So, is the city
on dredge tailings?

The original town
was never dredged.

When I first came here,

they dug the sewer line
down the middle of Main Street

and when they got ready
to backfill it,

they had to go get dirt
because everybody
from everywhere

come down and hauled gravel

because it was
really good gold.

You think there's any gold
left up here for me?

- Oh, yeah.
You just gotta find it.
- Okay.

This could be a home run,

but you don't know
until you pan.

Team Turin are prospecting
a mine in Idaho

that shows promising
signs of gold.

But after snow made
their initial test site
inaccessible,

Jason is pinning
all his hopes

on the second site
paying out big.

One, two, three,
four, five,

six, seven, eight
little micros and
three pieces.

Well...

I wouldn't call
this minable.

With the second hole of bust

and just one hole left
on the permit,

team Turin now face
a difficult decision.

- What's up?
- We got a couple little pieces
and a few finds.

Definitely not mineable.

This snow has screwed us.

I know there's gold here,
but if you can't find it
in the pan,

it's not gonna get
into the wash plants.

Those regulations are there
to protect the land.
I understand that.

But when we're limited to,
you know, three little holes,

I can't make a decision.

It's not
an intelligent decision.

So, my back's
against the wall right now.

All we got is one hole left
and with this snow,
I can hardly see anything.

Is it even worth
sticking around?

I don't think so.

Financially to stick around
and burn fuel might be best
to just pack up.

Why don't you go down
and talk to the forest service

and just see if you can
get a clarification

on what is considered
a sample hole.

So, you want me to go
to the forest service,

- give them our procedure
of how we do things?
- Yeah.

All right.
- I just think there's
a difference between,

you know,
scratching the surface,
looking at the layers.

Okay.

All I wanna do
is make a good decision

'cause we know
there's gold up there

and, hopefully,
we can mine it,
extract the gold and move on.

We're at a point
where we have to find ground.

So, I gotta get
to the forest service office
before they close,

hopefully, come back
with some more holes.

One and a half thousand
miles north,

after being forced
to spend the night
at McKinley Camp...

We're gonna get this whole
thing to go probably.

Dustin and Carlos
still have to remove

the remaining five tons
of snow from the cabin roof

to ensure it will survive
the rest of the winter.

Oh, there's movement.

Come on,
you can do it, brother.

There it goes.
Yeah!

That was awesome, dude.

All right, Carlos.

- You wanna call that good?
I can live
with this, man.

So, from here,
what do we do now?

Well, being that we're up
here already.

How do you feel
about going over and checking
out the dive site?

Ah...

Could be a
ton more gold everywhere
because of all this rain.

[bleep], you know,
after Haines... I don't know.

I mean, it destroyed
a whole bunch of stuff,

but it also moved
a lot of gold.

Let's see if we
can get over there at least.

Can we get
to the launch point?
Is it buried?

Carlos, I believe
I'm over the top of the deck.

All right.
Our starting point

where we hook up
to the zip line.
Frickin' buried.

The launch point
Dustin and Carlos used
to access the mine site

is covered by almost
five feet of condensed snow.

To get across
would mean stepping out
onto a shelf made of snow.

Dustin, it's done, dude.
Let's go, man. It's done.

I'm taking slow steps.
It's okay, man. Just relax.

This snow is
a frickin' thing.

Unpredictable animal, dude.
It just wants to kill you.

Yeah, I think
you're right, man.

Just to get hooked up,

I have to be over the top
of a lip in the snow
with a 450 foot drop under it.

It's actually pretty scary.

If this cornice breaks off
right here,

you'll never find me.

They had what they're calling
the 100-year flood
this year.

Horrible things
happen to town, but out here,

100-year flood pushed down
gold that's been stuck places.

It probably filled
Nugget Bowl right back up.

I would love to get eyes on it
to find out what we're getting
into next season.

But it is
just too dangerous.

The gold's
always gonna be there.

Let's go back home
and get some frickin' coffee
and hot soup, dude.

All right.

Maybe,
in a couple of weeks,

I'll think that was
an awesome adventure.

But right now, man,
I'm done.

I'm beat up.
I'm hurting. I'm cold.

But, at least,
we have our gear.

At least, we have
a fighting chance
for another season.

So, this year,
the same rain that caused

huge slides down
in Haines up here

flooded everything out

and I'm curious to see
what kind of gold
it moved around.

And in the spring,
we'll find out.

All my gear is safe,
my cabin is safe.

Everything's good.
We're gonna have
another season

and we're gonna find
some more gold.

Next time...

Rick's race hots up.

That's a dream combo.
Mining in the summer

and racing in the winter.

Fred Lewis...
- Told you I'd be back.

returns to an old spot.

I've had a gut feeling
about this piece of property
since we started.

That is a lot
of gold in there.

And Dave Turin goes all in...

First bucket, Idaho gold!

to find
his big money gold claim.

If there's no gold in this,
I gotta pack up and get
my butt out of here.

- No way.