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Gold Rush: White Water - Season 9 - Episode 06: Grave Diggers
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00:07Boy, it's hot today, wow, that's the hottest it's ever been down here.
00:11I think you're right.
00:13Sun come out, it starts melting the snow, water picks up.
00:16We're going to have to be very careful being against that weir dredging today.
00:23The water is coming over that weir pretty strong right now.
00:27Copy that, I'll be on the watch.
00:31Something broke upstream in at least a ton of water.
00:35Oh, yeah, flashlight doesn't help, it's like driving in a fog.
00:39Oh, is it a turn?
00:40Yeah, it turned horrible.
00:42It just turned ugly in a big way.
00:44Water came up and it's filthy and it's full of debris.
00:47Oh, yeah, it's murky as down here.
00:50Oh, come on, watch out, man, I've got a rock coming down.
00:58I walked out in my waders and I made it to the main highway that runs through here.
01:04It was just raging like it was its own river.
01:07God damn, man, that is a lot of water.
01:10That's a death zone right now.
01:14I feel like an underwater jackhammer.
01:17Damn, Dave, you're a geek, bro.
01:19What he's doing is terrifyingly dangerous.
01:22He knows it, too.
01:27We haven't been able to hit the bottom.
01:30Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out.
01:32Lucky, lucky, lucky, it's gonna be a good day today.
01:35I'm gonna tell you the truth.
01:36If we don't start seeing some hope, we gotta get out of here.
01:52We're running out of season, and this is taking forever.
01:56We're behind.
01:58We haven't gotten any gold hardly, so we need to get our ducks in order.
02:03What should we do?
02:04There's no sign, no color in the frickin' box, you know?
02:09The wall looks like it's a bust, you know?
02:15Halfway through his mining season, it's the height of summer in Alaska,
02:19and Dustin Hurt and his crew have run headfirst into the wall.
02:26It's frustrating knowing that there's gold down there.
02:29For sure, we've proven that there's gold all the way up and down this creek.
02:34Just having a hell of a time getting to it.
02:38With debts mounting...
02:39How are you going?
02:40Ugh.
02:42...he's on the brink of having to sell his claim.
02:47We need to get some gold, and if this thing's not producing,
02:49we need to move on.
02:51We gotta get paid, man.
02:53There's no two ways about this.
02:55We're running out of time.
02:57If it's not looking good in two or three dives, I don't know that we can just stay here,
03:01because it's getting to a dangerous level.
03:03If we can't hit bedrock in the next couple of dives, it's gonna be too deep.
03:06Yeah, it has to be the next couple of dives.
03:09It's becoming very tight down here.
03:12On the last dive at the wall, Carlos and James dug down to 15 feet.
03:18Wow.
03:19I'm sandwiched against the wall.
03:22Ugh.
03:23It's starting my nuts.
03:24If something goes wrong, they're dead.
03:26That's it.
03:28But the deepest point became so tight...
03:31Help yourself.
03:33Stop, stop.
03:34...it was beyond dangerous.
03:36Hey, look out!
03:37Where are you?
03:38All right, James.
03:39Come on up, buddy.
03:40Yeah, we're starting, huh?
03:41Ugh!
03:43Ah!
03:43Ah!
03:45There's no room to work down there.
03:47Ah!
03:48Carlos is pushing on me over on this side, and kicking and stepping on me while I'm trying
03:53to dredge, so there's not enough room for two divers.
03:55Ah!
04:00Well, let's get out there and just take a whole layer off and drop it, because it's
04:04getting too narrow.
04:05Mm-hmm.
04:06So, open it up.
04:07Make a big ol' swimming pool.
04:09Make a big ol' swimming pool.
04:11Then, when we go back to the deepest spot, there's literally nothing over us.
04:15That's a good point.
04:16So, today, it's a single diver, but we need to widen the hole up.
04:21Let's focus on that to make it safe.
04:24James, you're going down?
04:25Yeah, I'll do it.
04:26I'll head down.
04:27I'll do it again.
04:28I'm down to dive again.
04:30Make the hole just a little bit wider.
04:31That works.
04:33Okay.
04:34Let's do two or three more dives, and we have to make an assessment from there.
04:38Okay?
04:39Yeah.
04:39All right.
04:40Let's go do this, then.
04:43This week, we'll decide whether they will continue on at the wall.
04:48Getting gold, man.
04:50It's not as easy as you might think, you know?
04:54Or abandon the site with nothing to show for it.
04:59I'm more than excited to kick some ass.
05:01Let's do it, man.
05:04Logistically, I would love to put in two divers all day, every day, all night, every night,
05:09and get this done.
05:11Sometimes, that doesn't work out.
05:13So, right now, first step, make it safe.
05:16It's supposed to get hot today, so we'll probably get raging waters this evening.
05:20So, some of that snow up the hill is going to melt and really make a life nightmare, but
05:26we'll handle that, too.
05:28All right.
05:28Let's just get him going.
05:30Okay.
05:30Let's see what he can do.
05:31Today, single diver.
05:32I feel like an underwater jackhammer.
05:35I'm going to go down there.
05:37That's how motivated I am.
05:38That's how great I feel.
05:39I don't know what it is.
05:41It's time to get in the water.
05:42It's go time.
05:43You good?
05:44Yeah, I think so.
05:46I think we are ready to go.
05:49In an act of sheer desperation...
05:52You got to show me.
05:54Dustin has drafted in his girlfriend of 12 years, Danielle Miller,
05:59to help take some of the weight off his exhausted crew.
06:04Get it kind of semi-tight, hit it, and then get that extra tight.
06:10She's an expert machine operator.
06:12If these macros come loose, it makes your life hell.
06:16But must learn the ropes to the unique world of whitewater mining.
06:22There's a lot of extra hands, but that's good because then I can get a lot more training in.
06:28I'm just trying to see what that looks like on the top.
06:30I'm sure I'll get pulled in every different direction just like all these guys do on a daily basis.
06:36Just continue to learn what they do around here.
06:40It's a lot.
06:41Hey, let's check his microphone.
06:43He's mic' in.
06:44What you got?
06:45Is that working?
06:46Yep, yep, yep, I hear you.
06:47Oh, yeah.
06:48Yeah.
06:50Awesome.
06:54Ah!
06:56Ow!
06:57Ah!
06:59Did you see that?
07:00It got me.
07:02Ah!
07:02It almost bit my off.
07:06Anaconda!
07:07That nozzle was inappropriate with James.
07:16What's it look like down there, buddy?
07:17Do we need to back the dredge up or pull the hose back?
07:20What do you need?
07:21Maybe a basket down here would be great.
07:24I'm just battling some rocks that are getting in the way.
07:27Watch yourself, James.
07:28I'm throwing it in the water.
07:29All right, I'm backing up.
07:33Nice shot.
07:35Okay, I'm gonna start widening from the top down.
07:40A lot of rocks can shift.
07:42If we want to go deeper, we gotta go wider first.
07:46Right now, it's funneled into this little bitty space
07:50where two people would literally have to lay on top of each other to dig.
07:54So logistically, it's too dangerous for us in this situation.
07:59At the bottom of the narrow dive hole, the walls are so steep,
08:04it's like diving in a coffin.
08:08If James can't make the hole wider,
08:11and the walls less steep from the top down,
08:16they will be forced to abandon the dig before reaching the bedrock gold.
08:27What I'm hopeful for is we find some gold, or lots of gold, here.
08:31Yeah.
08:32And get paid, finally.
08:34We've done this so many times that by now we should have gold and tint this hard.
08:38How's it going down there, James?
08:41It's going.
08:41I got a basket ready.
08:44Got a basket ready?
08:46I'm just digging like crazy, trying to be as patient as possible.
08:54Pull up a little on the pressure washer hose.
08:57Copy that.
09:00Danielle's on it.
09:02You got me, James?
09:04Yep, I got you.
09:05Okay.
09:08That should work.
09:10You're welcome.
09:11No worries.
09:12Look how big that rock is.
09:15I don't know how big it is, but it looks like there's something to it.
09:18Why don't you put a single pop down the center of it?
09:21Train Danielle on what to do.
09:22All right.
09:23You can do that.
09:26You want to expand a rock?
09:29What's that?
09:29You want to blow up a rock?
09:31Oh, you got one to blow up?
09:32Yeah.
09:34Paul's going to teach Danielle how to blow up a rock.
09:37She's been a blaster for 20 years, dude.
09:40That's funny.
09:41And now he's going to teach you how to use these little recreational firecrackers.
09:46Danielle has had a long career running major construction projects around Alaska.
09:54Managing teams and operating heavy duty earth moving equipment.
10:00As well as being licensed in demolition and blasting.
10:05I think it's funny, but she needs to see it anyway.
10:09And it's just as simple as one there, one wire in there.
10:13And that's the loaded blaster.
10:16I used to do a lot of blasting.
10:20You know, Dustin used to help me load shots.
10:22Really?
10:23Yeah.
10:23That's how I impressed him.
10:26The big difference is that we would do much larger scale.
10:37You have to have a license to buy it, store it, manage it, use it.
10:47So there's a much bigger protocol with all of that.
10:51So when we put these in, they just recommend putting a rock on top.
10:56Just one rock or a couple, no, on top of it?
10:58Yeah, just on top of it.
10:59To keep it from shooting out?
11:00Well, it depends on how many boosters are in there.
11:02I've seen them shoot out, but most of the time they'll just fall.
11:05It's like a blasting mat.
11:07Right?
11:08They've worked so good for this.
11:10Hey James, we're going to give you a heads up.
11:12We've got a rock that we drilled.
11:13We're going to expand it.
11:15All right.
11:16All right, everybody's clear?
11:17Here we go.
11:18Three, two, one.
11:22Fire in the hole.
11:25That was a pretty uneventful blast, which is a good thing, but it's fun to see.
11:32That went well.
11:33Oh, yeah.
11:35Wow.
11:36Look for gold in that .
11:39That'd be a good piece to take back and polish.
11:42I can't believe how deep we are.
11:44Hey James, so what you got going down there right now, man?
11:47What does it look like?
11:49I am widening the hole.
11:51It's like a well.
11:55And I'm finding bigger rocks.
11:58Guess you could probably take that basket.
12:02That's getting heavy.
12:04Copy that.
12:07Over the next four hours,
12:12As he widens the dive hole,
12:17James moves nearly a ton of river rock.
12:23We can tell by the breathing when a diver is getting to its end, you know?
12:28He starts breathing really hard.
12:35I think I would pull him out.
12:36I think he's too tired.
12:38You hear him?
12:39Oh, yeah.
12:40I think it's...
12:41I think he's going to get himself hurt.
12:43Hey James, what's your situation, fellas?
12:47Hey James?
12:49James, James, James!
12:52James.
12:53Can anybody hear us?
12:57Talk, James.
12:58No.
13:00No.
13:03James.
13:07Up ahead.
13:10Almost to the bottom.
13:14Can we actually find the bottom?
13:16We'll have gold.
13:17I'm the Nugget King.
13:20Right now, Danielle is trying to stop the flood from taking our house.
13:24Total devastation.
13:26It's really, really...
13:28That's a washing machine down here now.
13:30Look at this.
13:31Watch out, man.
13:31I got a rock coming down.
13:34Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
13:37I got a rock right off the floor of my land.
13:39That's what I was afraid of.
13:58I think I would pull him out.
13:59I think he's too tired.
14:01You hear him?
14:01Oh yeah.
14:02I think it's...
14:04I think he's gonna get himself hurt.
14:07Hey James?
14:09James, James, James!
14:11At the walled dive site...
14:13Anybody got some comms?
14:14Want James?
14:16James has ground out a five-hour dive, widening the hole.
14:21Can you hear him?
14:23Talk, James?
14:24Talk.
14:27James?
14:29What's that?
14:30How you doing down there, James?
14:32Literally trying to...
14:35Just digging.
14:38Full diver up.
14:40I got him.
14:42Hey James?
14:43We're gonna do a full dive up.
14:46Completed your mission, man.
14:47You got the hole wider.
14:49Come on out.
14:50We can get two dabbas down now.
14:51Full diver up.
14:52Real slow, like.
14:53Come up slow.
14:54Dive up.
14:55Alright.
15:05Crawl.
15:19Good dive, man.
15:20Good dive.
15:21You alright?
15:21Yeah.
15:22Okay.
15:23Done this long enough to read people's breath.
15:25I know it sounds weird, but I pulled him out because things started getting dangerous.
15:30So, I have to make some decisions here.
15:33We're making progress.
15:34We just haven't seen gold yet, but pretty soon we'll see a glimmer of the light at the
15:38end of the tunnel, hopefully.
15:39We just gotta keep doing it.
15:41In order to save our season.
15:43Find some gold.
15:44That's it, isn't it?
15:45Yep.
15:47He made it wide enough for two divers so we can get back down to it.
15:50We gotta find some gold.
15:52We're getting desperate at this point.
15:55We'll see what happens with this dig.
16:07An extreme heat warning has been issued in the Juneau area with temperatures reaching
16:13over 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
16:15Severe flooding has been reported in glacial areas.
16:20Overnight, concerning news reached camp, forcing Dustin and Danielle to make an emergency trip to town at first light.
16:41Danielle had to go back to our house.
16:44Our house is next to a river that's next to a glacier that dumps into the river and floods.
16:52Last year it took a whole bunch of houses and buildings and our house got flooded but not too bad.
17:01They're calling for possible worse flooding in Juneau, Alaska.
17:06So right now Danielle is trying to stop the flood from taking her house.
17:12Because I didn't have enough stress.
17:20Here I am, total devastation.
17:24Mine is not the worst of it.
17:26It's, uh, really, really everywhere.
17:33I mean, people that weren't even anticipating it got hit.
17:37And, uh, as soon as I can drive in and out of here, I'll be pumping and using fans to
17:45dry everything out and see what the damage is.
17:48It's hard to imagine what people are going to go through to fix all this and if it's just going
17:54to happen over and over and over again.
18:00Uh, I'm getting pretty stressed out.
18:03Uh, right now my house is, uh, flooded.
18:08My girlfriend's taking care of it right now.
18:10But still doesn't alleviate the stress and, uh, not getting any gold.
18:18But we're doing everything we can to catch up right now.
18:22With the final week at the wall dive site slipping away.
18:26You're going to find out real quick what's about to happen.
18:30The next two dives will dictate their future.
18:34I'm hoping what James did widened it up for two divers today.
18:38But we're still going to try to hit the bottom.
18:41We'll find out.
18:42We'll get eyes on it.
18:45I have a good feeling about today.
18:50We're really close to the bottom where the bedrock is going to be.
18:56And as soon as we find bedrock, there should be gold in it.
19:01It's not my turn yet.
19:02I'd love to be in the water.
19:03But we're going to get two divers in there and they're going to totally annihilate it.
19:11Whew, getting toasty quick.
19:13Last Alaska summer right here.
19:16Let's go.
19:17Bring water today, y'all.
19:19It's going to be, uh, a little bit of a scorcher.
19:23Hope we still got a dive site.
19:38Wow.
19:39Man, did we lose some rocks out of the weir?
19:42There's a big float coming over right there.
19:45What the hell happened?
19:46God damn, man.
19:48That is a lot of water.
19:50Yep.
19:51It's bad.
19:53The sun comes up.
19:54It starts melting the snow.
19:56Water picks up.
19:58And then we get it down here.
20:00I mean, if one rock came out, the rest of them could come in.
20:03That's a very dangerous spot to be.
20:07That's a death zone right now.
20:27Oh, my goodness.
20:29Man, did we lose some rocks out of the weir?
20:31There's a big float coming over right there.
20:35At Nugget Creek.
20:36Holy .
20:38What the hell happened?
20:40A surge of glacial meltwater is threatening to destroy Dustin's dive site.
20:46It's a beautiful day out, but it melts all the snow bridges upstream.
20:51And then we get it down here.
20:54Yep.
20:55It's bad.
20:57I mean, if one rock came out, the rest of them could come in.
21:01That's just...
21:02That's a death zone right now.
21:04It doesn't look like the water is going to get any better today,
21:07because it's hotter than hell out here.
21:10This is unusual weather for Alaska.
21:20But halfway through the season, with almost no gold,
21:24the pressure is on to power down to bedrock nuggets.
21:31I know it's dangerous, but we don't have a choice.
21:34We just got to keep going.
21:36Of course, gold has to be in the most rugged, dangerous places in the earth,
21:41and this is one of them right here, you know?
21:43It can only go step by step, man.
21:47The water is this high at the beginning of the day, with the sun being out.
21:50It's going to continue to come up throughout the day.
21:53The more it picks up, the more velocity,
21:56the easier it's going to push those boulders in.
21:58We're going to have to be very careful being against that weird dredging today.
22:03We'll figure it out.
22:04We have no choice but to figure it out.
22:06All right, I'll go get dressed.
22:08All right.
22:14Let's rock and roll.
22:15All right.
22:17Radio check.
22:18One, one, one.
22:19Yep. Loud and clear.
22:21Yep, I'm good to go, man.
22:23Have a good dive.
22:26That's a freaking heavy-ass car.
22:29Let me see where I'm at.
22:32That's definitely white water.
22:35All right.
22:36This is a good place to start.
22:40Good to go.
22:44How's it looking down there, Carlos?
22:46We have plenty of room down there for more divers.
22:51Plenty of room.
22:52All right, Carlos, here I come.
22:54All right, man.
22:54I'm waiting on you.
22:58We got a little bit of courage down here.
23:00I know.
23:00It's picking up quite a bit.
23:02There is a definite hole right here.
23:04It's some sort of big, giant hole.
23:07We didn't need luck.
23:08It's got gold in it.
23:10There's only one way to find out.
23:11You got to dig it.
23:13How does it feel since I widened it?
23:14Plenty of room for two dredgers?
23:16Oh, God, yeah.
23:17I don't even think we haven't even seen each other underwater.
23:20Good job, James.
23:21Boy, it's hot today.
23:23Wow.
23:24That's the hottest it's ever been down here.
23:26Hey, James.
23:27I might need that pressure sprayer, man.
23:32Yeah, man.
23:33I'm in a heart attack, heart attack, heart attack.
23:36Now, with both divers operating 15 feet down,
23:41they need to break through a layer of hard pack
23:44that should be the last thing keeping them from the bedrock gold.
23:50I got your pressure washer, buddy.
23:53Oh, OK, great.
23:56We need the pressure washer to continue breaking through the hard pack
24:01and hope we will see some gold today.
24:07Hey, Carlos.
24:08How are you doing down there, buddy?
24:10Trying to stay away from this layer, man.
24:12I got some rocks over me.
24:15I reckon, uh, this hard pack is...
24:17Well, it's hard.
24:22You know the news, water is wet.
24:25Sky's blue.
24:27This heat is just kicking our butt now.
24:33Over the next two hours...
24:36I'm in the shade and it is hot.
24:38It's probably 80 degrees.
24:40The soaring temperatures...
24:43Holy...
24:44...are beginning to wreak havoc at the dive site.
24:48Carlos, give me a point.
24:49The water came up and it's starting to bust over the weir pretty hard.
24:55I'll be on the watch.
24:57You'll be on the watch.
24:59The water's coming over that weir pretty strong right now.
25:04Something broke upstream.
25:06It unleashed a ton of water.
25:10Yeah, it's...
25:11Oh, it's turned brown now.
25:13Yeah, it turned horrible.
25:15It's just turned ugly in a big way.
25:18Oh, yeah.
25:19A flashlight doesn't help.
25:20It's like driving in a fog.
25:22It's murky as down here.
25:26And there's all kinds of...
25:29You can't believe how bad it's coming over the weir now.
25:32It's got...
25:34Look at this.
25:36Water came up and it's filthy.
25:38It's full of debris.
25:39Give it a minute.
25:41Yeah, it's a washing machine down here now.
25:44Yeah, you're about to get your ass kicked.
25:47The water's continually getting worse and worse and worse.
25:52Oh, Paul.
25:53Watch out, man.
25:53I got a rock coming down.
25:57Paul.
25:58What is it, Paul?
25:59Yup.
26:00I'm trapped.
26:02I got a rock right off the floor of my land.
26:05Ow, ow, ow, ow.
26:17Can't believe how bad it's coming over the weir now.
26:20It's got...
26:22Look at this.
26:23The water came up and it's filthy and it's full of debris.
26:27Yeah, it's a washing machine down here now.
26:31Yeah, you're about to get your ass kicked.
26:34Oh, f***, Paul.
26:34Watch out, man.
26:35I got a rock coming down.
26:37Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
26:50Surging currents have pushed a boulder into the dive hole.
26:54Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
26:58Landing directly onto Carlos' hand.
27:01We're going to try to lift this thing out, Will.
27:04Ah.
27:06You all right?
27:06Yeah.
27:07Oh, f***, thank you, sir.
27:08Yeah.
27:09Ah.
27:10You get pinned?
27:11Yeah, he had that.
27:12It was good.
27:12His whole hand was underneath that rock.
27:15That was a heavy rock.
27:18Hey, why don't you come up, buddy?
27:19Yeah, yeah.
27:20Yeah, that's a scary thought right there, man.
27:25Got to call it.
27:26It's too dangerous to dive.
27:28The deadly surge is threatening to collapse their weir.
27:33Paul.
27:34I'm calling you up, buddy.
27:36Driver up.
27:37Yeah.
27:39Carlos just got pinned.
27:41A big rock fell on him and had him pinned.
27:44Thank God Paul was down there.
27:49Yeah, it looks nasty up here.
27:51How you doing, man?
27:52He got pinned.
27:53Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:55Paul caught me, man.
27:56Paul fricking helped out, man.
27:57He was smooth, man.
27:59Looks bad, huh?
28:00That's fricking bad.
28:01Yeah.
28:02It gets worse every now and again.
28:05Ah, thank you, guys.
28:07Mm-hmm.
28:07It just...
28:09Kapow!
28:10And I couldn't get my other hand to move it,
28:13because, like...
28:17So...
28:18It was...
28:19The pressure was increasing, increasing, increasing.
28:21Like, it was just like...
28:23It wanted to fricking, uh, pinch my fingers off, man.
28:29Sorry.
28:29Sorry.
28:30You got too bad.
28:31Paul came to save the day, dude.
28:33Then when something like that happens...
28:37We call it a day.
28:38You know?
28:44Good dive, man.
28:45I just had to pull you out.
28:46Sorry.
28:47I mean, that thing was just...
28:49It completely swallowed his hand.
28:51Carlos!
28:53That's the rock.
28:53That was it!
28:55Holy , that was bigger than I thought!
28:59Boy, he got lucky.
29:01Holy .
29:03That was only this far away from my fricking head.
29:06If that would've came on top of my head...
29:09Lights out, man.
29:11But that current is so strong over there right now,
29:14even to go back over there to try to put it in a basket...
29:17Holy .
29:18I was in a fricking blizzard, dude.
29:20I had my eyes closed, because there was nothing...
29:22I couldn't...
29:22I couldn't see.
29:24Damn, Paul.
29:25Thank you, man.
29:26How are you a fricking beard, brother?
29:28It was pretty murky.
29:30And it just got to the point where you couldn't see anything,
29:32which, you know, that probably led to Carlos being pinned by that rock.
29:39Because you can't see anything.
29:41You don't know what's coming down at you
29:43until it's either hit you or on top of you.
29:46What started happening was it got so damn hot.
29:49And the water came up.
29:51The water's continually getting worse and worse and worse.
29:54So it wasn't gonna get any better.
29:57So I take precaution.
29:59The water's just getting more filthy.
30:01It's just gonna cause more problems.
30:06Not looking too promising so far.
30:08We should be getting gold right now.
30:10I agree with you, but I don't see anything in here.
30:13We thought this was gonna be cakewalk.
30:17At 17 feet, the crew are the deepest they've ever been at Nugget Creek.
30:23You could be this close to a big pile.
30:27Yeah.
30:28Dustin needs to hit bedrock on the next dive.
30:32No gold.
30:33It's a lot of heartbreak.
30:34And nothing I can do about it right now.
30:38Or he will have to pack up and start over from scratch
30:41with less than half the season left.
30:45It's just really hard to stay motivated when you can't succeed at anything really.
31:00Over 100 miles southeast in Juneau, Danielle is dealing with the aftermath of the flood.
31:09I walked out in my waders and I made it to the main highway that runs through here.
31:16It was just raging like it was its own river.
31:19The water was coming in so quickly to the garage and it was starting to fill up.
31:23I opened my back door and it started just going right out instead of building up in here.
31:30And so I was really thankful I have a back door.
31:33I'm standing in my crawl space.
31:36This is where I live now.
31:37There's so much water down here.
31:40I'm just standing over the pump.
31:42And so it's working, but there's a lot.
31:44So I'm going to be here for a while.
31:47Yeah.
31:47It was a lot of water because it covered the whole square footage of the house, about 1,500 feet.
31:53So food and water is a lot.
31:56But it could have been a lot worse.
32:06Hey, how are you doing?
32:09Oh my God.
32:10I've just, I don't even know.
32:12I've been working for hours straight and there's so many neighborhoods that got flooded.
32:18It's like total devastation.
32:21Our friends down the road were like, their whole first floor was underwater pretty much.
32:29Yeah.
32:29And their cars were completely submerged.
32:32It was so heartbreaking to walk by and look at every house on the block that's basically underwater.
32:42I know exactly how that feels.
32:44I'm sorry to say that.
32:45I appreciate it.
32:46I know you guys have your hands full up there as it is.
32:50And I'm supposed to be helping you.
32:52So I think I got this handled.
32:54I'm almost done.
32:56Hopefully I can get up to you real quick.
32:59Don't even worry about it.
33:01Just get your work done over there and we'll see you when you're done with all that stuff.
33:06All right?
33:07All right.
33:07Okay.
33:08Thanks son.
33:09Love you.
33:10Bye.
33:12Puts things into perspective.
33:14We came away pretty lucky.
33:16So I can stay here and she can handle everything there because she's a very capable person.
33:22Tomorrow we're going to get in the water and throw everything at this.
33:26Let's see if we can get somewhere.
33:27We've got to make some gold.
33:41Yeah, dude.
33:42Sweating it up hot.
33:44At camp.
33:45It's frickin' hot.
33:46The heat is getting too much for some.
33:49I'm the only one that puts on sunscreen because apparently everybody has some sort of great pigmentation that they don't
33:56need this.
33:57But I just turned blister red because I'm a pasty white boy.
34:03Everybody loves a sunny day.
34:05Everybody loves that good summer day, especially in Alaska.
34:08But us right now, that sun is just going to beat us down.
34:24We're getting tired, exhausted, and things aren't going the way I need them to go right now.
34:32At Nugget Creek, the heat wave has peaked.
34:39Whether incompetence, situational, weather, it doesn't matter.
34:45Whatever the excuse is, we haven't been able to hit the bottom.
34:49And the crew have one last chance to find gold at the wall.
34:54Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out.
34:57Or they will have to cut their losses and move on.
35:02I know everybody's tired, but the way it sounds, there should be gold in there.
35:08We're going to strike it, Rich.
35:10I'm the Nugget King. I want to be the Nugget King.
35:14I can't tell where it's going because I'm not diving.
35:16So I need you guys to tell me where the damn bottom of that creek's going.
35:20I just need a lot of information because I'm about to...
35:22I'm going to tell you the truth. If we don't start seeing some hope, we've got to get out of
35:28here.
35:28This is costing time and effort, money. It's just eating it up.
35:36It's one of those dives that...
35:39where we're going to have to base our future decision on.
35:42We are halfway through the season and nothing to show for it, other than hard work.
35:47Something has to happen, man. Something has to happen.
35:51Get on your knees, man. Get a little bit of faith.
35:55It has to happen.
36:00Lucky, lucky, lucky. It's going to be a good day today.
36:06All right.
36:06All right, man. Looks like I'm good to go.
36:09All right, now we're going in.
36:14That was a rough entrance.
36:16That's one way to get in.
36:17All right, let's check to see what we've got here.
36:22Okay, where I'm at, right here.
36:26There, you got some pretty good viz down here. A little good viz.
36:29Yeah, you're trying to find the bottom. If he gets you unsafe, back out, all right? That simple.
36:35I think you're good to go.
36:37Carlos James is on his way in.
36:39Okay, copy that.
36:46All right.
36:48Ready for takeoff.
36:50Woo doggy!
36:52You know where you're at?
36:53Yep, I am situated and dreading.
36:56And I'm going to just stick to this part right here. I'm not moving here.
37:00Right now, all the eggs are in this basket right here.
37:04And hopefully that's where the gold's at.
37:06But if it goes under the weir, we're screwed.
37:09That's all I got, man.
37:10Yeah.
37:1317 feet down, James is digging hard to reach the bedrock gold, while Carlos expands the width.
37:24But he can only go so far before he starts undermining the rocky weir and risks burying both divers.
37:38Digging down pretty quick, man.
37:41Copy that.
37:42It's just going deep.
37:44Holy , man.
37:45James is freaking digging like a madman.
37:48I'm determined to get to the bottom of that hole, man.
37:53It would be great to get to the bottom of it, but I don't want to see anybody get injured.
37:57We've already done that.
37:58We're not doing it again.
38:00Still going down?
38:01Oh, yeah.
38:03I'm making the wider from the back and going down deep.
38:06Yeah, man.
38:08Yeah, bro, you're freaking one person down below me, man.
38:14I'm going to try to make a good discovery today.
38:17Yeah, dude.
38:24Let's get this basket out.
38:26James removes an extra three feet of material.
38:31Wow.
38:33Getting them to a staggering 20 feet below the surface.
38:38Damn, dude.
38:39You're freaking deep.
38:39I know.
38:40I'm almost to the bottom.
38:42A new record for Nugget Creek.
38:44Almost to the bottom.
38:46Not quite.
38:47Right about where that white water's at right there.
38:50James thinks he's near the bottom.
38:53That's where the gold's at.
38:56You're deep, bro.
38:57Holy .
39:04James, how far from the bottom do you think you are?
39:09Maybe a foot.
39:10Another foot can get down the bedrock?
39:13Maybe.
39:14Could be a foot away.
39:16Could be two inches away.
39:18All right.
39:18Let's see if he can get that foot down.
39:20All right.
39:21He is freaking deep as hell.
39:23James is probably about 20 feet down now.
39:27If he'll go down farther, and we actually find the bottom,
39:31we'll have gold.
39:33Oh, my God.
39:35I'm way down there.
39:38I'm not saying it's safe.
39:40What he's doing is terrifyingly dangerous.
39:43He knows it, too.
39:47That's dirt, dude.
39:48Hell.
39:50Be careful down there.
39:52Carlos, what's your situation?
39:57I can't go in the water, man.
40:05The thing is, you can't freaking widen it up.
40:08You go to the left, you go to the right.
40:10You're going to undercut these freaking rocks above you.
40:13If we go deeper, we're going to have serious problems.
40:16All right.
40:17Can you do an assessment for me, please?
40:19I'd like to know where he's at, what he's digging,
40:22and what his options are.
40:25Copy that.
40:47James has funneled himself once again into a narrow shaft.
40:53That's dangerous, yeah.
40:55That's what I was afraid of.
40:57Putting him in serious risk of being buried alive.
41:02It's right on the edge.
41:05It's so damn close.
41:07Ah, the hole's built back in.
41:09This is not what I wanted.
41:14It looks like it's absolutely impossible.
41:18We know there's gold down there, but if we can't get to it,
41:21it's just going to sit there forever.
41:24I don't know what to do.
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