Original subtitles

[Parker] Nine years ago, I came to the Yukon.

This is just the beginning.

You know, I mean, that pan, we're gonna be throwing

thousands of those through our plant every day.

The Klondike brings all sorts of crazy people together.

I've seen a lot show up trying to make their fortune.

A lot of people have come and gone...

but we're still here.

But gold miners are in for a shock this year.

You know, you're paying more for just about everything.

Inflation hit a 30-year high last month.

[Parker] The world's all screwed up.

Fuel prices are crazy.

Spare parts are hard to find.

And crazy high gold prices are gone.

One thing about these issues is it's gonna burn some people up.

Tony Beets is struggling with Red Tape.

Fred, he's in the middle of nowhere.

Lack of experience is going to hurt him.

Rick Ness, rumor has it, he's not even coming back.

We have to hammer down like never before.

This season is going to be our toughest season yet.

[Paul] On the all-new season of Gold Rush.

[Tony speaking]

It's do or die this season.

And right now, we are trying to survive.

[Tony speaking]

We're hitting it with everything we got.

That's what we've been waiting for.

You're washing rocks.

Parker has asked me to come from Australia to help him

with his new Alaskan operation.

If you need to stop really fast, use this one.

[man] This is like the best pan I've ever had.

Hey, miracles happen, right?

Not in my world.

What the [bleep] is going on with the Hulk?

[metal clanging]

Oh, [bleep]!

Hey. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, stop, stop.

Get out of my face and leave.

A lot of sacrifices go into making this happen.

This is hard.

He's right at mine site. Let him [bleep] work.

[Tony speaking]

Looks like Fairbanks is [bleep] day one.

[bleep] me.

[man 1] One, two, three...

[woman 1] Nine, ten.

[man 2] Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

[woman 2] Eighty, one hundred.

One-ten, one-twenty.

[woman 2] Two-forty, two-fifty, two-sixty.

- 448.95. - [bleep] yeah.

Fifty thousand ounces of gold.

- Whoo! - Fifty down. Fifty to go.

[wind howling]

Snow is very deep.

It's the most snow since I started lining up here,

you know what, nine years ago.

[Paul] Parker Schnabel came to the Klondike

at just 18 years old.

Since then, he's pulled over 45,000 ounces of gold out of the ground,

today worth $86 million.

Now, at the ripe old age of 27, he's planning his exit.

[Parker] It's looking like this season's going to be

massively different than the last few.

We're in a brave new world.

[Paul] The Klondike Parker knew years ago is changing.

All the best ground is taken, and restrictions are increasing.

[Parker] With the state of permitting right now,

you know, everybody's businesses are at serious risk.

[Paul] To keep his gold mining dreams alive,

Parker's expanding, opening a new claim in Alaska.

[Parker] We are going to Alaska,

and we are setting up a new operation over there.

The biggest challenge this year is gonna be figuring out

how to manage two mine sites in different countries.

There's a lot of money at risk.

It's really difficult surviving those kind of expansions.

[Paul] But first, he's staging a Klondike blitz.

[Parker] Getting things going here at Scribner is now the main focus.

We've got a lot to do.

You know, when you start adding up all the projects,

it sounds like a hell of a lot.

[Paul] To add even more pressure,

Parker's losing his main water license

on his gold-rich airstrip claim at the end of the year.

[Parker] There's no wiggle room.

You know, normally with mining, it's like,

"Oh, what you don't get done,

you just can do the next season."

On this ground, this season, there is no next season.

Any gold that we leave in the ground

is probably staying there.

So we need to get it all done.

[Paul] With fuel prices rising to record highs

and the supply chain that feeds his operations in tatters,

there's no margin for error.

But that's not stopping the young mine boss.

[Parker] The big thing for me is that I really like to push ourselves

and find more gold each year, like last year was a huge season.

But I think we might be able to have a 10,000-ounce season.

Oh, but it looks like they're getting some stripping done.

I'm guessing that's Tyson.

How's it goin'?

Pretty good. You, man?

Oh, not bad.

- You guys have been busy. - Yeah.

Camp's sorted. And now out we're moving dirt.

Looks like it.

[Paul] Plant boss Tyson Lee is getting a jump on stripping the airstrip,

a chunk of ground that has brought in over $9 million worth of gold so far.

[Parker] Okay. So you guys are just gonna plug away here,

so you might just leave it, like leave the snow

from where that line is forward,

just leave it undisturbed and just carry this stuff up,

corner it out up that way, you know?

Don't want the ramp turning into [bleep] halfway through.

[Parker] No. And that's what's going to happen.

So the line with Tony must be right in here somewhere, huh?

Yeah, it's pretty close.

[Paul] Parker leases all the claims at the airstrip except for two.

Those are owned by Klondike kingpin

and long-time frenemy Tony Beets.

[Parker] Okay. Where is he?

Tony?

I believe at the Hill.

He hasn't got anything out here?

No, I haven't seen him.

- Obviously, it doesn't look like... - Brought a couple of trucks

out the other day, but other than that...

Wait, so he's moving equipment out of Indian River Camp?

Yeah.

That doesn't make any sense.

[Tyson] Not much does with him.

Like we've done better and better the further downstream we've gone.

The license is going to expire with the gold in the ground.

I'll go talk to him.

I'm just gonna go sit down with Tony

and see what his plan is

because if he's not gonna mine it,

then I'll probably ask him if we can.

You know, Tony and I have always had a bit of a rocky relationship.

But then, like, would we be where we are if Tony hadn't given us,

you know, a chance in the beginning

when we first showed up in the Yukon?

Probably not.

Truth is he's helped us out a lot.

That's worth something, I guess.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony had been mining for 30 years...

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] ...when he gave the 18-year-old a shot...

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] ...when no one else would.

[Tony] 140.65.

[Paul] And it paid off for both of them.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] But as the stakes got higher, egos collided.

[Tony speaking]

Just show up in the spring and shutting us down?

[Tony speaking]

Tony won't talk today.

Have a judge tell me that, Tony.

[Paul] Climaxing in an explosive battle

over mining the airstrip that Tony owns...

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] ...that Parker holds the water license on.

Give me one good reason not to tell you to go [bleep] yourself.

Well, the last few years, I don't know, it's been weird.

[Paul] Now Parker finds himself once again

trying to broker a deal with the king of the Klondike

over this long-disputed piece of land.

- [Parker] Tony. - [Tony speaking]

- Hi. - [Tony speaking]

[Parker] How are you?

- [Tony speaking] - Good. How are you?

- [Tony speaking] - Good to see you.

[Tony speaking]

- It was good. - [Tony speaking]

- I got COVID. - [Tony speaking]

Have you heard from Rick Ness?

[Tony speaking]

- [Parker] How was your winter? - [Tony speaking]

You've got... you've still got a lot of years left in you, Tony.

[Tony speaking]

Are you gonna, like, get old and grumpy or are you gonna get...

[Tony speaking]

No, Minnie will kill you.

[Tony speaking]

I know Minnie well enough to know that you would not get away with that.

[Tony speaking]

- Not great. - [Tony speaking]

I mean, it's... Yeah, it's... you know,

well, everything that's good is either tied up or been mined, right?

- [Tony speaking] - [Parker] Right.

And the scary thing is now they're starting to get it.

[Tony speaking]

We have a lot going on.

That's part of the reason I wanted to talk to you.

Right now, we're stripping up to your line...

Mm-hmm.

And you've still got a couple of claims on the bottom end of that.

But I don't see...

you haven't been out there at all.

[Tony speaking]

[Parker] So are you open to us mining it?

[Tony speaking]

Okay.

[Tony speaking]

And then do you think for those two claims

we could have them just a flat royalty

at 15% rather than applying to like that sliding royalty scale?

[Tony speaking]

- [Parker] Right. - [Tony speaking]

[Parker] Okay.

We'll do our best to get that done.

I can't promise we'll get it all, but...

[Tony speaking]

[Parker] ...we're going to sure as hell try.

All right. Well, that sounds like a deal to you.

[Tony speaking]

I better go get to work.

[Tony speaking]

Thanks, Tony.

[Tony speaking]

[Parker] That's the result we were looking for.

But I think we kind of just doubled our workload for the season here.

[Paul] Before he even steps foot in Alaska

and despite already being stretched thin,

Parker's just secured more ground

than he's ever mined in one season.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Forty years ago,

Tony left the Netherlands seeking his fortune in the Klondike.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Over three decades,

he's built a gold mining empire from nothing.

Last season, he invested millions on monster machines

to continue expanding on the Indian River.

But those plans were trashed

when he couldn't secure a permit.

[Tony speaking]

I know.

[Paul] Now, to hang on to what he's built,

he faces the battle of a lifetime.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Hemmed in by regulations,

Tony's only option for gold is Paradise Hill

and he needs to be digging paydirt in two weeks to hit his target.

But there's a problem.

His path to the claim is blocked

by the deepest snow on record.

[Mike] I hate snow right now

'cause every time you remove the snow, it snows again.

[bleep] [bleep].

There's so much of the [bleep] this year

that we had a [bleep] problem finding places to put it.

[Paul] Tony's put youngest son, Mike,

in charge of the startup crew

and clearing snow and ice from the only access road to the site.

There's very few people my dad can trust

to do this job because someone else,

if it starts to slide, they'll panic

and they'll do something stupid

that they're not supposed to,

and they can get themselves seriously injured.

If I get killed on the mine site,

who's my mommy and daddy gonna sue?

My mommy and daddy?

That's why I can get away with a lot more [bleep].

[man] Mike, you copy? Mike.

Yeah.

[man] I got stuck in a snowbank with the loader.

[man] Can you come and have a look at it?

Loader operator got a little too vigorous

and went a little too far, found a hole.

[Paul] To haul the 38-ton loader out...

It's sitting right on ice. You can't do jack [bleep].

[Paul] ...Mike brings in the 18-ton D6 dozer.

Let's go.

You ready to go backwards?

You're in there good.

You're on ice.

So you got about as much traction as a [bleep]

trying to climb a hill.

Gonna need something a little bit heavier.

The ground in front of us is frozen, so it's no traction.

And we need to get something with a little bit more weight than the D6,

so I'm thinking of the grader

'cause the grader will have nice traction,

but it'll also have quite a decent amount of weight on it.

But I don't know if it'll have enough either.

[Paul] Mike ups the ante with a 28-ton 275 horsepower grader.

[Tony] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony's plan, weigh down

a 31-ton rock truck with heavy overburden

to create a 67-ton monster.

[Tony speaking]

[Parker] Thanks for being here.

Big job ahead of us.

Yeah, there's a lot of work.

[Paul] After striking a deal with Tony Beets,

Parker Schnabel now needs to mine more ground than ever before,

and he has to do it before the end of the season.

[Parker] This spring is gonna be what sets us up for,

you know, if we can get it done by the fall or not.

So let's just give it our best

and let's see if we can get her done.

[Paul] To take on Tony's ground,

Parker's mobilizing his entire operation

to strip the extra 45 acres

and wants to be pulling in gold in just a week.

[Parker] Let's make it happen.

[Paul] Parker leads from the front in his 73-ton D10 dozer.

[Parker] Let's mine some [bleep] gold.

Best way to figure out how to manage a bunch of different projects at once

is probably just go start doing it.

With my grandpa back in the '40s and '50s,

he managed a whole bunch of different logging camps all over Alaska

and how they didn't have Internet or sat phones or anything.

So I don't know how he did it.

[Paul] Parker already has 45 acres of ground to mine at the airstrip.

By adding Tony's 45, he's now up to 90 acres,

50% more than he mined last year.

If he can get through it all,

he could beat last season's $15 million total.

[Parker] Keep going ahead and swing her in tight to the bank.

Straddle that bank.

[Paul] Across the claim,

Tyson Lee is digging ditches and building berms

in the 480 excavator in the pre-stripped ground

nearest to the Indian River.

[Tyson] This year, we had a record snowfall.

So we're having a lot of melting snow coming into our cut.

We've got to get this ditch in and armor up the riverbank

before the Indian River is flooding into us like none other.

I've seen people lose entire cuts

because they don't have good drainage.

[metal clanging]

Oh, [bleep].

The [bleep] is going on?

Hey, Jordan, you got a copy, Jordan?

Yeah, man, looks like one of the pins in the truck on the 480 snapped on me.

It's the last thing we need right now.

[Paul] A broken pin has stopped Tyson's ditching in its tracks.

[Parker] You know, these pins, they hold each segment together.

It's like a zipper.

One of the links in the zipper broke, and now I can't use it.

[Paul] The 58-ton excavator's 35-foot track is made up of links

held together by 52 coupling pins.

One has snapped,

causing the track to slip off its rollers...

and the tensioning idler to drop out of position.

To fix, the idler must be put back into its housing,

the track pulled on to the frame, and the pin replaced.

Just got to pull the track up over

so we can just put it all back together right here.

That's a broken pin there. That's a broken one.

[Paul] Before they can secure the track back onto the frame,

mechanic Jordan Sands needs to guide the tensioning idler

back into its housing.

- [Jordan] Hey, Tyson. - Tyson!

[Jordan] Man, can you just push on the idler.

We're just going to crack the adjuster.

You can just ease into it with the blades

- instead of trying to push on it with the bucket. - [Tyson] Okay.

[Paul] Tyson must maneuver the 19-foot dozer blade

with pinpoint accuracy.

He's going to push the idler in for us.

So it's back in its little slot.

Jordon's in there with a bar trying to hold it up,

and he just needs me to push on the idler very gently

while he's trying to line it up.

And I can't see anything.

So I'm solely relying on Jordan right now.

Very delicate process.

You know, a D10 would push this whole over sideways.

Hang on.

Back off a little bit.

[Jordan] Grab your right clutch

and just steer over like this far.

Bit more.

In the hole, boy.

[Paul] For the final part of the fix,

Jordan must get the replacement pin

through the holes in the track.

Let's go.

Go on.

Hooked up. She tightened up with grease.

Good to dig dirt, make money.

[Paul] Tyson and the 480 are back in the game

digging ditches before the melt delivers any flooding into the cut.

It's like it's all back together working...

working as it should,

so that's why we have the best mechanics in the Klondike.

[Fred] We're taking a huge gamble.

There is no safety net.

It's a lot more real for us this season.

We've put everything we have into this.

We're not relying on outside sources.

This is all us.

[Paul] Military veteran Fred Lewis

is gearing up for another battle.

In the midst of a precarious economy,

Fred's refinanced his home in the hope of him

and his crew striking it rich.

[Fred] I started this all to help veterans,

and that's still my long-term goal.

I'm doing this for my band of brothers.

[Paul] Tapped out of cash,

there's no way back for Fred if he doesn't find gold this year.

So I've set a goal for this season of 500 ounces.

It sounds like a big jump from our last season total of 110,

but that's what we need.

[Paul] After just six ounces in his first season,

Fred hit his stride in his second.

Not only did we do it, we beat it.

I can't believe it.

[Paul] Banking 110 ounces and breaking even.

Whoa.

But costly disasters.

[Fred] This one's done for the season.

[Paul] ...left him needing more cash to start the season.

Now I've got my claws sunk so deep into this,

I think, at this point,

I would take just about any risk

if I thought it was feasible to overcome.

So we're going for it.

[Paul] Fred's claim lies 46 miles west of Dawson City,

deep in the wilderness.

To get there, he must cross the mighty Yukon River.

[Fred] This is the first look I've gotten at the river this season.

I expect it to be way less than this.

Right now, we're looking at several...

I mean, maybe even over a week for this to be broken.

And then they've got to get all the big ice cleared from upstream,

has to pass down.

This is bad.

[Paul] For four months of winter,

an ice road over the river has connected Dawson

with a highway to Fred's claim.

But as the snow and ice melt, it's too dangerous to cross.

With precious little time to get on the gold,

Fred's forced to wait for the ice to break up

and the ferry to start running.

We have this 200-meter stretch of river we can't cross.

So right now, can't do anything,

can't go to our claim, can't get anything set up

until Mother Nature let's go of winter.

It's a horrible start.

I mean, this is just a mess.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Two days ahead of schedule,

Tony's crew have cleared the snow

and they're ready to start mining for gold.

But first...

[woman] Hi!

[Paul] ...Tony gathers three generations of the Beets family.

[Minnie] Look who's here. Look, Catherine.

-Look who's here. Is that Grandpa? -[Tony speaking]

Like we never left, Tony.

- [Tony speaking] - Some things got a little bigger.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] So what's the plan this year?

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] I thought we had that lined up.

[Tony speaking]

How deep are you going?

[Tony speaking]

- That's deep. - [Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony's Paradise Hill claim

contains the Klondike's legendary White Channel Pastry.

To hunt it down, he's going to dig deeper than ever before.

First, he'll start by opening the cold cut,

a sprawling 9-acre site where he hopes to find paydirt at 130 feet.

100 yards away, he'll chase the pay streak as it rises to 30 feet

by opening the blue cut.

With fuel costs rising,

it'll cost millions just to get down, to pay.

What we have planned here,

we'll have lots of ground to pull from.

- [Tony speaking] - Yeah.

- [Tony speaking] - Whether they have the gold

in the ground though, that's a different story.

Clearly, that's where the gold is.

Gotcha.

[Tony speaking]

Mm-hmm.

[Tony speaking]

Who says that?

No one says that.

[Tony speaking]

Oh, Lord.

Yeah, you better get a lot of gold mined

because otherwise we cannot afford auction sales.

[Tony speaking]

- We'll see you guys later. - [Tony speaking]

Everyone from Dayton to Eric, y'all are rock truck drivers.

Lisa and James, you two are gonna be on the 750s.

Ruby, you're gonna be on the 950.

Mike, you're gonna be my co-dozer.

My dozer's blocking the road.

We're gonna treat it like a hull breach in a ship in space.

I'm gonna go first and everyone on the outside

is going to slowly come in with me.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony wants to hit pay in just a week.

So he's sending Mike and a fleet of ten rock trucks,

three excavators, and two giant dozers to the cold cut.

Follow me!

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] We're literally throwing everything we have at this cut right now.

Everyone knows what they're doing. Everyone's going.

Just go, go, go, go, go and be like clockwork.

I mean, we seem to have a pretty good crew so far this year,

hopefully it'll be good.

We're all just trying to work together in this chaos.

This year, we have so many new excavators,

so many new trucks, so much other equipment,

so much more than we used to.

My dad says he's going to let me

and Kevin take charge, which will be good

'cause he's also not always running around

like a chicken with its head cut off.

I feel we can expand even further, do more.

He likes to micromanage. I don't blame him.

He didn't become this successful from relying on others,

so it makes it very hard for him to do that.

[Ruby] I think Mike's going to do a great job.

He's been doing it already since he was he was young.

And as long as he can keep that balance between operating

and also making sure that everything is running efficiently

and everybody's doing their job properly,

I don't see it going wrong.

[Tony speaking]

[Fred] This is a big frickin' deal,

and I have never seen anything like this.

[Paul] Three days after he arrived in Dawson City,

Fred gathers with the town.

[man] It's going.

[Paul] Miners have monitored the spring breakup

of the frozen Yukon River since the 1896 Gold Rush.

The exact time is recorded by a wire

connecting a tripod on the ice to the shore.

When the ice moves, the wire snaps,

signaling the start of the mining season.

[man] It's going, it's going!

Watch you.

Yeah, yeah. You guys watch out.

Oh, yeah. Back, back, back.

Come over here. Come over here. Slide a little more.

Wire snaps.

[man] Oh!

- [alarm blares] - Listen.

It is official.

A lot of work ahead, but this is the first step

to getting us across the river, so...

- [boy] Oh, no, no. - It's go time.

You can see the massive amounts of ice coming down here.

It's gonna be a while.

It's probably the best news we could possibly get.

This is the catalyst for the beginning of our season.

But now that it's broken, we don't have any time to mess.

So at this point, it's all hands on deck, ready to roll.

It's go time.

We have a lot of ground to get through,

a lot of rocks we have to wash.

And right now, we have no wash plant running.

[Paul] On the airstrip,

Parker Schnabel's plant boss Tyson Lee

races to dig ditches before the mother of all snow melts causes a flood.

Not a day and not a dime.

[Paul] Rock truck driver Tatiana Costa hauls dirt to build the berms.

There's so much ground to go through this year, it's insane.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Holy [bleep]. What's that? Holy [bleep].

Tyson. Tyson, you got a copy, Tyson?

[Tyson] Go ahead, tater tot.

[Tatiana] Got to come here right now.

The cut is flooding. It's like Niagara Falls just burst into the cut.

Come here right now.

[bleep]. Okay, I'm on my way.

[Paul] Snowmelt is filling the ditch

and threatening to flood the cut.

If it does, Acres of gold rich ground could be underwater,

delaying mining for weeks.

[Tyson] We have practically Niagara Falls.

And this is because of a record snowfall year,

and it's starting to warm up.

So we have to deal with this now.

The only thing I can think of is we have a six-inch pump,

so I'm going to radio Alec.

[Paul] The 74 horsepower pump

has been on the bank all winter

in bitter temperatures dropping below minus 50.

Tyson and mechanic Alec Kelly work fast to fire it up before the melt floods the cut.

You'd say closer to the river's more thawed than further away?

- Looks like it. - Yeah.

- All clear? - Oh, yeah.

Come on, baby.

Oh, yeah!

Oh, my [bleep].

You said you had faith in it.

It's gonna wash away the berms and the pump's gonna be in the drain.

[bleep].

We could move your truck and get the whole thing

and get that staged up at least.

If we hook up to the teeth on the front...

- Yeah. - Real tight.

You can kind of like roll the bucket

and it'll pull the pipe straight with it.

Oh, yeah. I just really don't want to break that pipe.

Come down a little bit.

Try curling the bucket up.

[Paul] Tyson uses the two-ton excavator bucket...

Down just a little bit.

[Paul] ...to separate the connection

without damaging the pipe or the pump.

Hold it right there.

That'll do.

These bower fittings work on different angles,

but as you can tell, little impurities can cause it to leak.

[Paul] By smoothing the bower fitting,

Alec creates a better seal.

Shall we see if that wants to seal for us?

I'll give her a try.

Hey, move your ass. Go on.

[Paul] Flood water continues to fill the ditch.

If they can't get the pump up and running,

the melt could soon shut down the cut.

Okay.

Up just a little bit.

Use just your stick to bring it in right there.

Lift her up and swing away.

See what happens this time.

Oh!

Whoo-hoo!

[Paul] Problem solved.

The pump's flowing.

[Paul] Tyson can get back to digging.

We have the whole valley of water coming down to this one spot,

keeps coming and coming, and I'm trying to get this drainage in place.

[Paul] In the mountains above Keno...

[water splashing]

Oh, I love these mud puddles.

[Paul] ...Fred Lewis is on a mission.

Now the river has broken, he's called in mechanic, JB Mayer...

Holy [bleep]!

[laughs]

[Paul] ...to investigate a vital piece of equipment for the season.

[Fred] I have a couple of leads on a dozer.

[JB Mayer] Oh, really?

This dozer is probably the most important thing

we could acquire right now.

That is the biggest missing part

to our, to our season this year.

If we can't get a dozer, obviously we're not mining gold this year.

[Paul] They're heading to Duncan Creek to meet with mine owner Troy Taylor,

who's got a dozer for sale.

- He is Rick Ness's claim owner. - Oh, okay.

So he's got experience in gold mining quite a bit.

I would think, you know, if he sold us some junk

and... and then, you know, we get it up there

and, you know, it breaks down and it's...

- We know where he lives. - Yeah.

- Yeah, I mean... - [Fred laughs]

You see this thing?

- How's it going? - Good. How are you?

- Nice to meet you. - You found me.

Yeah.

Holy cow! This thing's big.

[Paul] The Komatsu D355 weighs 53 tons.

[Troy] It's a beast.

It's done a lot of work for us over the years.

[Paul] The 14-foot blade is capable of shifting almost 30 tons of dirt in one push.

[Troy] At 410 horsepower, I think that's what it's rated at.

[Fred] That's like a D9...

[Troy] Yeah, that's right. Something like that.

[Fred] What year did you say it was?

[Troy] 1984.

It's got a leak in the final drive,

so I can show you that and how to deal with that.

Well, we want to... can we get, can we hear a starting up and hear it roar?

[Troy] Sure. Are you ready for that?

[Fred] Oh, wow.

- Yeah. - Oh, wow.

Okay. Here we go.

[engine choking]

Uh-oh.

Sounds like the battery is a bit weak.

Yeah.

It's not a good start, eh?

I've got some jumper cables in my truck.

That's good.

Don't wanna blow anything up here.

Okay. You're ready?

[engine starting]

Come on, baby.

Come on. Come on.

- [Fred] Come on, baby. - [Troy] Come on.

[Fred] Woo-hoo-hoo!

- [Troy] It's alive. - It's alive.

She's purring like a kitten now.

This is what we wanted to hear.

Yeah.

Keep your hand on the ledge and...

You know, that thing's so tall.

I mean, that's a massive amount of snow and dirt right there.

[Paul] JB has 20 years' experience

working on heavy equipment in the Army.

So I looked over here,

I don't see anything new coming out hydraulic wise.

Everything looks good and solid.

I did see on this side there's one roller that is, kind of, wobbling.

[Fred] Okay.

[JB Mayer] But you see that one's smaller, and there's a gap there.

[Fred] Is it missing a seal or something?

[Jab Mayer] No, it's just starting to go out.

The rollers, the rollers go out.

[Fred] It's a big fix or is it an easy fix?

No, easy fix.

- Man, I don't know. - What are your thoughts?

This is, you know, to me, this is a big deal for our season.

I think we need to seal it. I think we need to say yes.

All right. So I guess the only other thing we have to ask is price.

What do you... What are you thinking?

What we think it's worth is 45,000, and so, um...

Okay. You mind if JB and I go and have a little talk?

- [Troy] Sure. - Just talk it over?

-Yeah. -[Fred] Okay, cool. We'll be back in a minute.

- [JB Mayer] Cool. - All right.

What are you thinking?

Man, I tell you, I think you're getting a deal of a lifetime.

I do, too.

Um, I hate to... I hate to nickel and dime,

but if we could get that down to 40,

it opens up extra money for us and... and it would pay for the shipping.

You're the budget guy.

So, I mean, you know what I mean, but I'm just telling you,

from my opinion, I think it's worth, you know,

you know, every penny of it, you know?

So what do you think?

- We definitely want it. - Yeah.

Um, I want to ask one question.

I don't want to offend you.

Um, with our budget being super tight right now,

is there any chance you could go down to 40?

Uh... Well.

How about this, before you answer?

Because I can tell you don't like it.

What if I offer you 1% of gold bonus

at the end of our season from what we pull?

Hmm.

[Fred] Because that would save our budget now

and at the end of the season, we'll give you that plus some.

Yeah. Okay.

If I take 40 and 1% gold bonus, yeah?

Yeah. I think we could do something like that, it sounds good.

- Yeah. - Awesome. Let's do it.

And our target right now is 500 ounces,

so it should be enough to more than cover that five grand

and it really helps us out in a bind.

So I really appreciate it.

We got a dozer.

It's awesome, man. I'm super happy with it.

- Ah! You have no idea. - [Troy] Yeah.

[Fred] All right. Well, we'll get out of your hair.

-All right. Yeah. -I'm super excited. Thank you so much.

- All right, Troy. - [indistinct chatter]

- Thanks. - Take care.

We want to get this cut down and done

well within the next week.

All this stuff is nice to work right now that's frozen,

but the moment it starts to thaw,

it makes it a lot harder and more expensive to work it.

[Paul] The Beets family led by son Mike,

are throwing everything they've got

into stripping the cold cut of 700,000 tons of dirt

in the hopes of hitting Paradise Hill's infamous white channel pay

in less than a week.

[Mike] If we don't get this cut done in the time allotted,

sucks to be us, we're just going to have to work harder.

[man speaking]

[Kevin] [bleep] Thanks.

Go for Kevin.

[man speaking]

Copy. Take that truck back to the yard, please.

Main yard. Main yard.

Ah! I'll be back.

[Paul] As they work through the deep overburden,

Tony's oldest son and chief mechanic, Kevin Beets,

is battling to keep the rock trucks in working order.

[Kevin] Ah, [bleep].

There are several bolts missing from this machine,

which are kind of important.

Not supposed to do that.

[Jess speaking]

Kevin, go for Kevin.

[Jess speaking]

[grunts] Might as well run to the staging there as well then.

[man 2] Oh, [bleep]! That's not good.

Ooh, that's a lot of smoke.

Hey, Kevin. Copy, Kevin.

Go for Kevin.

Yeah, I just blew a rad up here on the Cat.

[bleep].

Give me a minute, I'll hop in a truck. I will be right there.

Change of plans.

Never [bleep] fails.

Okay. Let's have a look-see.

That's not good.

Looks like a hose busted.

[Paul] In a matter of hours,

a third of Tony's fleet of rock trucks are out of action.

[Mike] What's going on with this?

[Kevin] Uh, rad line's busted.

We need an O-ring piece, which we don't have in stock.

So, uh, truck's down for a bit.

How long you figure?

With the way shipping has been, probably a couple of days.

[bleep]! That's no good.

I need as many trucks as possible right now.

You're going to call Tony to figure out a plan?

No.

There's a lot of trucks at the Indian, right?

I believe so.

Only take me a day to slip into the Indian

and go grab the truck,

so I'll go line that up

and you make sure stuff don't break around here.

Yeah, sounds good.

[Paul] No longer needing to check with Tony,

Mike decides to leave the cut at a critical time

gambling he can get back before any disaster strikes.

[Mike] Because the more trucks we got, the more production we're getting.

[Paul] In the mountains above Keno City...

Rally crew member Nathan Thornington

maintains the equipment

as he waits for the arrival of his boss, Rick Ness.

- How you doing, buddy? - Hey. Hey.

- Yeah, it's been a couple of seasons. - It's been a while, eh?

- Yeah. - How are things going, anyways?

Going great with me.

It'd be nicer if I knew more of what was going on myself.

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, because I've just been up here in the dark

a little bit for the last week, ten days or something.

We're going to liquidate some stuff here and, you know,

and thin the herd out, I guess,

and hopefully, hopefully, we'll be back out soon, right?

But as of, as of us mining this season, I have no idea.

[bleep]

It's not very good.

'Cause we're already at least a couple of weeks behind by now.

Yeah.

Last year was awesome and you think, like, what happened?

[Rick] This'll sound really good.

- No! - Wow!

[Rick] Doesn't that look cool, though? Look at that.

That represents victory right there.

- [Nathan] Yeah. - I don't know how to top it.

I mean, I will. I'll top it next year.

I haven't been able to talk to Rick much.

To be honest with you, I have no idea what's going on.

Um...

Well, I hope everything's all right.

- Like... - Yeah.

All we can do is tighten up some stuff around the yard here and hope and pray

that we... we're out here mining soon, right?

[Mike] Now we're here.

We'll go see about getting that rock truck out of the line.

Okay.

[Paul] Mike Beets is on the hunt for a working rock truck

at the family's shuttered Indian River camp.

And here's the rock truck we came here to get.

[Paul] With three rock trucks down at Paradise Hill,

Mike's hoping this one will keep things moving.

[Mike] We don't want to slow down the production there

even in the slightest.

So we're over here grabbing a rock truck,

even though it's costing me and Ruby not being there.

The hell!

[Ruby] All the fluids are good and still in place.

So hopefully she starts.

Otherwise, it's a complete waste of the day.

[engine chokes]

Oh, come on.

Oh, are you [bleep] kidding?

Come on, baby. One more time.

Start out for me.

Yeah. There we go.

[Paul] To speed up the stripping at Paradise Hill,

Mike grabs a spare D6 dozer.

[Mike] It's taking us a bit longer than I thought.

We've already been out and about to do this

about for four and a half hours.

That's a lot of time [bleep] go wrong.

Three to four minutes is all it takes to [bleep] go to hell

when you're running trucks.

Ruby, you're in the rock truck.

Evan will act as a pilot car.

I'm going to [bleep] off ahead of you guys.

Let's get going while we can still get going.

[Paul] Mike now faces a 40-mile drive back to Paradise Hill.

To avoid the road bends on the highways,

Mike's taking local roads.

It's an icy, mud slicked route back to the hill.

Lost all my momentum on the [bleep].

Bob's old road is garbage.

Look at this.

[bleep]

It's [bleep] road's way too [bleep] greasy.

I'm not going to be able to get up at this rate.

[Paul] Up ahead, the steepest part of the road...

a hill on a 25 degree incline.

[Mike] It's a dangerous game trying to drive up that hill

when it's this muddy.

[Ruby speaking]

Oh, I mean... I don't know about you,

but I've been slipping and sliding across [bleep]

everywhere I've been going,

and I'm most definitely not going to make that hill.

Oh, okay. Do we have a game plan?

[Mike] I don't know. I'll have a chat with my dad.

Tony Beets, do you copy, Tony Beets?

We came out at the Indian to replace the rock truck that was down,

but the road is so [bleep] greasy right now,

I'm pretty sure I ain't going to make that hill.

[Tony speaking on radio]

[Mike] Okay. I'll be waiting.

[Tony speaking]

We're hoping to make this quick

and get that rock truck back so we can get it to work.

But as is, I think it's going to be pretty late

before the rock trucks makes it back to camp.

[Tony speaking]

Okay.

[Paul] Tony's plan.

Unload the 18 ton D6 from Mike's low loader.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Without the weight of the D6 and traveling at speed,

Tony reckons the low loader should make it up the hill.

[Tony speaking]

- [Mike] Yeah, yeah. - [Tony speaking]

[Mike] I know.

[Mike speaking on radio]

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Okay.

Come on, you [bleep].

[bleep] damn [bleep].

I'm flying all over the place.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Give me a sec.

What the [bleep]!

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] [bleep] road is so [bleep] slick.

[engine revving]

[Mike speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Come on. Come on.

Oh, yeah. There we go.

Yee-ha!

[Mike speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] The truck and the D6 dozer

are finally headed to the hill.

With dad's help, Mike's back on track.

[Mike] So, I better hurry to get this dozer

and that rock truck back to the Hill so I can get them working.

It won't be long till we start hauling pay.

- Hey there, youngster. - What's happenin'?

[Paul] With more ground to mine than ever before...

- [Parker] Good to be seen. - How you doing?

[Paul] ...and plans to open up even more in Alaska later in the year,

Parker calls a council of war with trusted lieutenants,

foreman Mitch Blaschke and gold recovery expert, Chris Doumitt.

It's good and bad.

It's good because we have lots of ground.

It's bad because we will have an additional,

whatever, two million square feet to mine for Tony.

[Mitch] That's a lot of sluicing on its own,

let alone anything else.

[Parker] Yeah.

There's a lot there. There's... there's a lot to do.

I wouldn't be suggesting it if I didn't think we could get it done.

So our leases will have a pretty busy season.

A lot of landlords to keep happy.

[Chris] Yeah. Not a lot of us.

It sounds like too much stress.

I quit.

We know what the [bleep] we're doing, don't we?

So here we are, in the first cut of the season.

[Paul] Despite the team's reservations,

Tyson has sprinted out of the blocks.

He's protected the cut from flooding

and is ready to run paydirt.

Hey, tater tot, that's the first load of pay going to Big Red,

so we got a lot of rock to wash this year

and a lot of mud to move.

So let's make her count.

Woo-hoo! Let madness begin.

[Paul] Now it's on Mitch to get the plant fired up.

It's going to be a crazy challenge to try

and get through all this dirt this year.

And the only way we're going to get it is if we do it right

and even doing everything right,

I still don't know if we're going to get through it all.

There's going to be so much pressure on sluicing,

which means that these wash plants have to run flawless.

[Paul] It's the earliest Parker's ever tried to sluice.

Wash plant, Big Red, has been lying in the cut all winter

with record snow

and temperatures dropping below minus 50 degrees.

[Parker] You about ready to fire up?

[Mitch] Yeah. Just got to throw some water at it,

- hopefully, all that works. - All right.

And then see if she remembers how to shake.

[Parker] Ready. Give it.

[engine starting]

Come on. Wake up. Wake up.

Come on.

It's been a long winter. It might take it a minute.

[engine starts]

Oh, yeah.

All right, now we've got our water pump fired up.

We're just going to let it warm up here,

but it's sending water up the Big Red.

[Paul] Wash plant, Big Red,

separates the gold from the dirt

using only gravity and water.

Pay dirt is loaded into the feeder

and blasted with 90,000 gallons of water per hour,

washing out the dirt and rocks

while the heavier gold settles into the sluices.

Well, we'll start the shaker, fire up the feed bin.

As long as all that's working and happy,

we can start putting this dirt in there and start turning it into gold.

You ready?

Here we go.

Come on, baby.

[Paul] For Parker, to hit his target on the airstrip,

Big Red will need to sluice 24X7 for its longest season ever.

You know, for this wash plant to sit up here

through a Yukon winter,

got it fired right back up here and we're back to washing rocks.

If you look around here,

you know, we're the only ones, as far as I can see, doing it.

So that just tells you we're off to an early start

because everybody knows if you're going to make any money up here,

this is the only way to do it.

Send it, man! Let's go!

[Paul] With Tony, at least a week from running,

Fred not even at his claim, and Rick Ness nowhere to be found,

Parker is well ahead of the game.

Here we go. It's what it's about.

Not gonna lie, it feels pretty good, man.

As long as that trommel is not spinning,

all we're doing is spending money and getting nothing.

I just want to get the [bleep] job done.

[Paul] On Paradise Hill,

the Beets are desperate to get on the gold.

Expert operator, Ruby Mahoney,

has been mining for ten days straight,

reaching 70 feet down in the cold cut.

Ah.

[Ruby on radio] Mike Beets, you got a copy? Mike, Mike?

Yeah, go ahead, Ruby.

[Ruby on radio] Do you mind coming over here for a minute?

Yeah, I'll be over there in a second.

Oh, yeah.

I think we finally hit pay.

[Mike] Oh, that's good. Took us long enough.

[Ruby] No kidding.

[Mike] That's definitely pay right there.

- You can see it all over. - [Ruby] That yellowy stuff.

Yeah, that's good stuff.

It has that nice sound when we drop it, too.

Click, click, click, click of the rocks. I love that sound.

[Ruby] Yep. Perfect.

[Mike] Which means, we can start sluicing soon

and we'll have a massive cut to work from.

[Paul] Ruby's hit the pay layer shallower than expected.

The distinctive iron stained yellow soil

contains rounded riverbed rocks,

both good indicators that the ground contains gold.

If it is quality pay dirt,

it could mean they've struck

a massive 60-foot deep white channel pay layer.

Tony Beets, do you copy? Tony Beets, do you copy?

[Tony speaking]

Hey, Dad. We struck pay.

[Tony speaking]

[Mike] Okay.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony's test will decide just how profitable his season will be.

[Tony speaking]

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] On Paradise Hill,

the Beets have finally hit pay,

but Tony won't risk running what they've found through the wash plant

until he's sure there's gold in it.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] Tony's banking on the cold cut delivering big

if he's to hit his 5,000-ounce target.

[Tony speaking]

[Paul] After hitting pay early,

Tony could be on for a bigger payout

than the king of the Klondike expected.

[Tony speaking]

Good job.

- You ready for this? - How you doing, man?

Oh, man. Look at the river.

Still a lot of debris, but she's rolling.

[Paul] Two weeks late to start his season,

it's finally go time for Fred and his crew.

[truck honking]

- [Fred] There he is. - [JB Mayer] All right.

- You made it. - Yeah.

[Paul] Fred and J.B. are joined by Buzz Legault,

an experienced local miner

who enlisted with Fred last season.

[Fred] Buzz is a loyal friend,

and he knows a hell of a lot about mining.

Without buzz, we're dead in the water.

Hey, we're pumped. We're ready to go.

All right, let's do it.

I feel kind of jittery, kind of excited.

I'm ready to get this moving.

You know, once we cross that river,

that's pretty much when our season begins.

[Paul] Get to his remote California Creek claim,

Fred will have to cross the Yukon River,

drive 46 miles on the top of the world highway...

at an altitude of 3,000 feet,

then turn off road

down a treacherous half-mile dirt track

to reach his base camp.

[Fred] I came out here, kind of,

thinking that there would be some snow,

but it's definitely winter up here.

Oh, man.

I just look back at one of these side roads

off of the main road here,

and I think we're going to be snowed out.

[Fred] Oh, boy.

Look at all the snow.

Hey.

This snow here is three to four feet deep.

Yeah, we're going to have to do quite a bit of snow removal.

[Paul] The road to Fred's claim is buried under thick snow and ice...

and with Fred's new dozer still in Keno,

all they have to clear it is Buzz's little dozer.

[Fred] Right now, we're kind of in a time crunch.

I have my fuel guy come up here to deliver fuel,

but he beat us up here and right now he's been waiting

for probably several hours on us to get out here.

So we really got to freaking move right now.

[Paul] Fred's ordered half a season's worth of fuel.

If the dozer can't open the road for the fuel truck,

it will have to leave and Fred will suffer yet another setback.

Hopefully, that fuel truck is not going to leave.

So that's my biggest concern right now.

Bringing that little dozer out here was a gamble.

I honestly didn't know what it was going to be able to do.

I hadn't anticipated this much snow.

So have we not gambled with that,

we'd be up [bleep] creek right now.

This thing is an absolute savior.

[dozer honking]

He's ready to go. He doesn't have any more time.

So we're just going to have to get [bleep] moving to get out of his way.

Ooh.

Oh, boy.

Fuel truck made it up. So I think my truck is good to go.

I'm going to hop in and I'm going to go for it. We got to get up there.

- [bleep] yeah, dude. - [bleep] yeah.

Without the little dozer, we couldn't have did it, man.

She's a beast, that little guy.

- I love it. - Let's get to [bleep] work.

[Paul] After two weeks,

Fred is finally ready to start his season.

[Fred] I know the gold's there,

but it's on me to get it out of the ground and on the scales.

Let's go down there and check it out.

What the [bleep] is that?

Holy crap!

[JB Mayer] I thought we were mining a creek.

[Fred] Wow!

That's... Oh, my [bleep].

Wow!

Our entire claim is under ice.

That's a glacier, right there.

[Paul] Last year, Fred mined the banks of California Creek.

Now the gold-rich pay dirt is buried under a sheet of ice.

This blows my mind.

What the hell are we going to do, man?

So this is where we separate the men from the boys.

Right now, I feel like a little boy and we need to think really hard

about how we're going to tackle this before we tackle it

because someone could die in this...

- Oh, for sure. - Easy.

[Tony speaking]

[babbling]

I haven't seen any gold yet.

We have been just stripping

and, like, between the stripping and the wages,

it's an expensive month.

[Paul] Tony's hit pay dirt earlier than expected,

which means he could have a massive 60-foot layer of gold rich gravels.

- [Tony speaking] - [Minnie] Hey, how are you?

[Tony speaking]

That's fine, eh?

That's the first gold I've seen this year.

[Tony speaking]

How are Michael and Kevin doing?

[Tony speaking]

But it's good for you that you delegated to them though,

that... and then, and that you kind of stay out of their way a little bit.

- [Tony speaking] - It's good for them.

[Tony speaking]

It's nice to see a little bit of gold,

but it would be nice to actually start having real gold weighs again.

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] I just got to go to town, so...

[Tony speaking]

- Okay. - [Tony speaking]

Yeah.

[Tony speaking]

[Minnie] Quit your whining.

[Paul] Tony's gamble to go for the deep gravels is paying off

and he could bank even more than his target of 5,000 ounces

if the white channel pay gets richer the deeper they go.

[Tony speaking]

- [man 5] Hey. - [Mitch] Yo. What's up?

- [man 5] You made it, huh? - Oh, yeah.

- [man 5] How's it going? - Not too bad.

[Paul] Back in the Gold Room,

Parker's crew are ready for their earliest gold weigh ever.

[man 5] And then there's Parker.

- All right. - [man 5] Hey, youngster.

[Parker] Do you want to come in?

[man 5] Oh, what's up, Doze man?

We're going to have too much ground this year?

I mean, since when have we not, like,

taken on too much?

We basically, you know, we've bitten off a lot.

I mean, this is like the all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet.

But if you look at that ground down there

and how much of it there is,

if we do get through it all,

man, I think we could have a hell of a season.

Yeah.

All right, Chris.

You want to see how we started out?

- [Parker] Yeah. What you got? - Mitch?

- [Mitch] Let's see it. - Lookie, baby.

It's your machine, Big Red.

- You ready? - It takes everybody, man.

It's your machine.

[Paul] After running for four days,

the team is eager to see how the new Tony Beets' claim pays out.

[Chris] All right.

20, 40, 60, 70.

Come on, keep going. 80.

We're going to break a 100? Huh?

[Mitch] We're going. We're going.

110.120.

137.8.

[Paul] Worth over $240,000.

- [Chris] Not bad for a first run. - [Mitch] Yeah.

And you got to think about how early it is

and it was thawed.

So all I can say is "Thanks, Tony."

[Chris] Thanks, Tony. Yeah.

[Mitch] It should be a busy place down here this year

- if we get through all that ground. - Yeah.

Especially, once you get Slucifer going,

this place gets hopping.

[Mitch] Keep up the good work.

[Parker] Thanks, guys. Thanks...

Thanks for coming back this year, too.

Chris.

I heard my vo... I heard my name.

Yes, Lord.

[Parker] Thanks... Thanks for coming back this year.

Oh, well, thanks for the invite.

- It's good to have the gang back together. - It is.

Things seem solid and equipment's running good

and we've got gold on the scale and yeah...

[Mitch] Knock on wood.

It's all downhill from here, right?

[laughter]

- Yeah. - Yeah.

I'm out. Excuse.

- Cool. - Okay.

[Parker] We definitely have a lot to do this year.

The plate's overflowing.

But...

this is a good start if we're going to try to get it all done, but...

my dad would not be impressed if I were saying things like this.

He'll... "You got to be optimistic and, you know,

get after it," but...

We'll see.

Rick's a pretty, pretty closed off guy,

but it just seems like lately he's been a little bit more closed off.

Last year, Rick did over 2,000 ounces

and the fact that he's not up there,

they're just chomping at the bit to try and do

even more this season is a real head-scratcher for me.

I was actually going back up for a stretch and give him a hand and,

um, now it's to the point where I can't even,

you know, get a text message back.

To be receiving text messages and phone calls from family

and asking why he's not up there,

it's a little worrisome.

I mean, I've asked in the text messages, "Are you good?"

It's kind of no response.

That's why I feel like it'll just be better for me

to drive over to his house now.

Um, I just feel like something's definitely going on.

I just... I don't know.

I love the guy, and I hope he's all right.

That's all I really want.

Well, let's see if he's here.

[Rubi barking]

There's Rubi.

Holy [bleep]!