Original subtitles

♪♪

narrator: It's lurking on the horizon.

A violent arctic blast known as the siberian express

we've got a lot of wind coming this way.

We got to prepare for a blow.

Brewing, building, looking to wreak havoc on

nome and the frozen bering sea.

Trying to come up right now.

I need more time down here, buddy.

♪♪

with the ice thinner and more fragile than ever,

the massive winds have the power

to drive ocean currents away from shore,

breaking apart huge sections of ice

and sweeping them directly out to sea,

taking with it anything or anyone in its path.

[bleep] bring them up. Bring them up now.

Air compressor's off.

Come up now.

Now as the vicious storm takes aim at the fleet,

the question is this --

will the miners escape the icy crosshairs?

♪♪

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

[ wind blowing ]

man: Emergency winter storm advisory

for bering sea coastal areas --

high wind alert, severe arctic gusts out of the north

at 30 to 40 knots expected this evening,

increasing to 50 knots by nightfall

and severe wind chill with -40 degree temperatures

likely.

♪♪

narrator: On the frozen shore of nome.

We now have everything we frickin' need

to make this gold mining operation work

so I'll rush out there as best as I can,

there's like zero visibility on the trail.

Narrator: Into the face of the impending storm,

emily riedel is determined to finally get on the gold.

Taylor can fire it up out there.

We're in the middle of a tundra blizzard

so we're just gonna get out there

and try as hard as we can to get a diver under the ice.

I have not had a fun history with ice mining.

It's been pretty brutal.

I've never had a successful season.

Our original plan, good old faithful 14,

that fell through because the ice was thin.

Then I had to make a deal with shawn to work on tomcod.

And now we're down here going head-to-head with the storm.

You know, nothing's going our way,

but we're just gonna keep going.

We'll get lucky today, put some gold in the box,

and, at the very least, get a frickin' dive in.

No time to waste.

[ engine revs ] [ singsong voice ] bye.

♪♪

narrator: As emily hits the trail, 10 miles west --

♪♪

shawn: Weather alert -- north, 30 knots, this is not good,

not good at all.

Narrator: Mr. Gold's also ready to lock horns

with mother nature.

Shawn: We're gonna have to be ready to get off the ice.

High north winds.

It's gonna blow the water out, drop the ice down.

It might hang on, but who knows how good it's tied in here.

That stuff moves around.

If we don't get our stuff off the ice,

there is a high possibility of losing everything.

Narrator: This winter, shawn is scrambling

to come up with $400,000

to fund the purchase of the tomcod claim,

but the approaching storm could throw an icy wrench

into his plans.

The north winds can push seawater away from shore

and lower the tide,

causing the thin ice to collapse and break into pieces

that will be blown out to sea,

along with any equipment or miners foolish enough

to remain on the ice.

♪♪

shawn: You don't want to push it to the very end

and then lose all your gear,

and then there goes any kind of mining

or any kind of gold for the rest of the year.

So it's not worth taking that risk.

And I'm not leaving my stuff on the ice.

At 30 miles an hour,

that wind has enough force it'll pile the ice up

on top of each other,

and it'll slide and pile up, and it'll move.

With the ice so thin this year, you're just asking for trouble

with a storm this big.

There's a real chance

that the storm will come and break off the ice,

take my whole operation with it.

I have no choice but to tempt fate

and try to get gold today.

The tomcod's on the line.

♪♪

any hour we can get in before the storm

and before it starts blowing,

that's money in the bank.

Narrator: Despite the risks, shawn is willing to play chicken

with nature's fury.

Once they get down,

let's just make sure everything is ready to pull.

I want to get suited up, get down there.

♪♪

am I a little crazy for not getting my operation

off the ice and out of harm's way?

Yeah, probably.

I'm also a little crazy

for putting everything on the line for the tomcod.

I didn't get to where I'm at from not taking any risks.

If you want to play it safe,

then don't be a frickin' gold miner.

♪♪

I'll hang out down there as long as I can.

As soon as that wind starts blowing, let me know.

Man: All right. Sounds good. We'll keep an eye on it.

It's like I should have about three, four hours of diving

before the wind picks up.

Well, I'm gonna buy the tomcod, when I have to push it.

♪♪

[ mask hissing ]

♪♪

oh, yeah. I'm really liking what I'm seeing.

The gold seems pretty consistent.

♪♪

♪♪

[ hissing continues ] I hope it doesn't get too windy.

If the ice blows out, that'd be bad.

This yellow and stuff right here is the windy stuff.

We got really to watch out for that

before it really starts to pick up.

♪♪

yeah, we don't want to lose all our equipment, man.

I'm just gonna let him work the bottom and grind it out.

When it gets bad, we'll pull him up and pull everything to shore.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

narrator: 16 miles east.

♪♪

kris: Okay. Team meeting.

Let's just get our plan together.

We got to get going.

We got to get this stuff going,

and I can see a storm front moving in.

Narrator: The approaching storms,

not keeping the kellys off the ice, either.

I know everybody's tired already,

but we've got to push hard through this.

You know, we're on a lot of gold.

Look it, the long story short --

dude, whatever. We need more hours.

That's the long story short.

Narrator: So far this winter, kris has barely made a dent

in the ounces he needs to fund an upgraded mining vessel

that can take him down the coast.

Kris: Season got off to a bad start.

We have a big storm on the horizon,

so I got to figure out a way we can up production

and not lose any time.

So, now that we know we're on gold,

I'm gonna bring in another diver,

and we're gonna see how things go today.

Who is it? What's his name?

You know what, this person is --

okay. Her name is shaunna.

Her? Another girl?

Look it. This -- you did this [bleep]

last year, man. That failed.

This chick is an undersea water harvester.

She's a diver.

She did a better diver than you, supposedly.

[ coughs ] she goes 90 feet

underneath the water. Really?

Yeah, for like eight hours at a time.

That's different.

It's gonna work out really well.

She's a hard worker, you know --

you said that about the last one.

I didn't say that about the one.

You said, "this one harvests seafood."

the other one could barely dive.

She ate seafood.

Narrator: It's not the first time kris has gambled

on a new diver.

I've got a diver coming for trials.

Hey, man, it's not this girl, is it?

Brad: [bleep] no different. Okay. So this is bree.

Hi.

Narrator: This summer,

he added rookie, bree savage, to the team

to get more hours underwater.

Kris: We're gonna give her a shot.

[ screams ]

narrator: But in the end,

her contribution to the dive team...

Kris: Hey. Calm down. Are you okay?

...Was about five minutes.

Kris: I'm gonna hear about the bree story

for at least three more years.

She ever dive under the ice?

No, she never dive underneath the ice.

Oh, see. That's totally different

than diving in open water.

I think she's gonna surprise you guys.

Everything's gonna go good today.

Bottom line, we're on gold, the winter window is short,

and this storm isn't doing us any favors.

We got to get more hours on the box moving forward,

and that means bringing on another diver.

Hopefully, she won't suck like the last one.

♪♪

kris: Oh, here she comes.

This her? This is her.

I want you guys to be nice and give her a try.

We'll see.

Let me introduce you to the crew.

I'm glad you made it.

♪♪

what up? I heard you guys need a diver.

Shaunna.

That's my brother, andy.

Hey. Hey.

♪♪

ice mining's a little tougher, and it's a little darker,

but I know you're gonna be able to handle it.

Oh, yeah. I'm ready for the challenge.

There you go.

You got to watch out for the sharks under there.

Yeah. [ chuckles ] there's no sharks.

There's no sharks, there's nothing dangerous.

It's only yourself. Got you.

You're the most dangerous thing underneath there.

Mm-hmm.

I'm not stupid. I know my dad and brother are watching.

I know I'm under the microscope big time,

especially today with this storm breathing down our necks.

So, let's just go over kind of what I think if you do it.

I think shaunna has what it takes,

but it's up to me to make sure she's ready for this.

Kris: Let's go through a couple of problems

that you may run into.

You might get your hands sucked up in the nozzle,

you might get your foot, you might get stuck.

You'll only be able to see about a foot from the ground.

So you're gonna have to have your face kind of-ish

near the nozzle,

but if you stick it too close,

it will suck your mask off your face.

There's one way in, one way out.

And if you pop your gear underneath the ice,

the current of the ocean will take you way over there,

and you'll never come back.

If she can dive longer than it takes me to smoke a cigarette,

I'll you happy.

♪♪

shaunna: This is pretty intense.

I mean, it's under ice, dead of winter, bering sea,

and a new crew.

I've never dealt with the ice, but I'm up for the challenge.

Brad: If you got a dry suit, you can't, it's too cold.

♪♪

she won't be able to get warm.

I know.

Let her go down. Let her go try and see what happens, okay?

Kris: Right out of the gate,

shaunna: Brought a dry suit, not a wet suit.

With a wet suit, you can hook up hot water

and you can stay alive.

With a dry suit, there's no hot water.

This water is 30 degrees.

It might be too cold for her to even try to dive.

You're good to go. All the way?

Yeah, you're good.

She's never dive under the ice before.

She didn't know.

But the fact she's doing it anyways is pretty badass.

I just hope she doesn't freeze to death

without hot water running through her suit.

Kris: This doesn't count as your dive,

'cause I don't see it working for you.

I got faith in you, but the ice is a different beast.

I don't know how long you can last like that.

I know I couldn't do it.

Let's just point out that.

I'm smart enough where if it's too cold

and my gear's not gonna work,

I'm just gonna be like, "I'll come up."

you're gonna have a hell of a headache in a little while.

Man, you have no idea where you're going into.

Narrator: Coming up --

jeff: Regulator's kind of squelching.

[bleep]

bring him up, bring him up now. Air compressor's off.

Jeff, come up now.

♪♪

narrator: As the impending storm gathers strength,

the clock is ticking.

Pushing the fleet closer to the breaking point.

♪♪

[ rumbling, ice creaking ]

♪♪

off the coast of nome.

[ motor whirring ]

vernon: All right. We go.

♪♪

we're gonna get a diver in the water here pretty quick.

It's supposed to get windy tonight,

and it's supposed to be blowing 30, 35 knots.

Narrator: Despite the looming storm,

vernon adkison is banking his future on today's dive.

Vernon: We're running out of time here.

Just changed to the new hole,

and we got pulled out of that first toll.

It was not productive enough for us,

so we moved to a new location.

That's where we're heading right now.

Our first time out on claim 16,

we didn't get enough gold to convince me it's gonna pay.

So we're gonna make a move, go out deeper,

looking for that hot spot.

If I'm gonna plunk down a fortune on this lease,

I need to know it's gonna pay.

Got no time to dilly dally,

but mother nature is gonna be right up our ass.

I'm gonna try to get in some good production,

get a diver down as quick as we can.

Right now, it's time to get this show on the road.

♪♪

it looks like the team has things up and running.

That's good.

So it shouldn't be long, put a diver in

and start getting some gold.

♪♪

narrator: After a disappointing showing on their first hole,

vernon needs to hit pay dirt fast.

Find out if his quest to buy claim 16 will be boom or bust.

I got a pretty good, strong feeling

that we might end up owning this one.

In the best of all possible cases, we'll get down here.

This will be a nice, juicy hole.

That would be real good.

Our goal is 200 ounces,

but it's gonna take 60 to 70 ounces

to just break even.

Narrator: But with the storm looming,

he's not just risking his bankroll,

he's risking his entire operation.

Yeah, if you got an emergency situation

that the ice starts breaking away,

you want to be able to move in a hurry.

I mean, you got to, otherwise you'll lose your gear

and possibly your life.

We're taking certain risks right now

that we don't want to take,

because we've got to.

Time and money are not on our side.

If there's no gold here,

then the entire season is gonna be a bust.

We're gonna have to be steadily cranking

from now until the end of the season.

[ mask hisses ] get some gold.

Narrator: Today, vernon's relying on rookie diver

gary simpson.

Fingers crossed. Let's do it.

See what we can get.

♪♪

[ mask hissing ]

♪♪

all right. We've got a diver down,

that's always a good sign right there.

Now we got to get some gold,

lots of it.

Go ahead, man the comms.

♪♪

♪♪

hey, gary, give me a report.

Well, you know, it's hard to tell.

Let me do a little more clearing here,

then I'll let you know. [ hissing continues ]

yeah, okay, gary. Thank you.

♪♪

hey, gary, tell us what you're looking at down there.

Right now, I'm looking at some good-looking material.

Let's see if we can get some gold in the box.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

♪♪

yes, keep plugging away, man, for as long as you can.

But just be safe, okay?

All right. I will.

This hole is looking a lot better than the previous hole.

You know, hopefully,

we're gonna have a lot of gold in the box.

We'll find out real soon.

I don't know about the weather, though.

We've got a lot of wind coming this way.

That's blowing 21 and gusting.

Around here, that could be just over 30, 40 knots

so we've got to prepare for a blow.

This north wind, if the ice did break up,

it would push us out to sea.

Can't take a chance on things blowing away.

That would be a disaster.

Narrator: While vernon hunkers down, 10 miles west --

♪♪

we'll just have to deal with the storms when they come.

I got to focus on our primary objective,

which is to get a diver in the water and get on the gold,

and the ice goes out between now and then,

so be it.

Narrator: Looking for the ounces to prepare her fleet

for the summer,

emily's armed with coordinates for mr. Gold

and ready to get a diver under the ice

for the very first time this winter.

This is the first time

that jeff and grant and I have worked together

doing ice mining.

We haven't even pulled off a dive yet, it's insane.

I mean, you know, we're risking a lot mining

in this crazy north storm, but we have to do everything

that we can to just get in the water.

We're going to work. [ laughs ]

all right. Switch.

♪♪

[ engine revs ] yay.

Whew.

Fire up the hot water,

and we're pretty much ready to start the dive.

I know you all are veterans, but let's just review

a couple of things about ice diving.

Safety first. Safety first.

If you have any problems at all coming on, come back up.

30 feet of water so I'll let you know.

You've been under the ice a lot, you know how it goes.

Yep.

Mining this deep is a challenge,

and it's far more dangerous.

Under the ice, any kind of diving over 30 feet

is definitely not ideal.

The diver's farther from the hole,

so it's greater chances that something goes wrong.

I mean, not only are you risking the bends,

but you're also cutting off your surface time.

We've had so many setbacks,

this is our first dive of the season

so I don't know what to expect.

Neither jeff nor I have ever mined a tomcod.

We needed the coordinates from shawn

so shawn is gonna make money if we make money.

♪♪

jeff: The air pressure good? [ mask hisses ]

air pressure's at 90.

Narrator: With the diver's air set and all systems go...

All right. Here we go, baby.

Let's go find some cheese.

Emily: Go kick ass, jeff, you always do. Come on, buddy.

Narrator: Jeff orzechowski takes the plunge.

♪♪

♪♪

hey, grant, can you bump up the air pressure just a wee bit?

Well, the good news is that we're finally mining.

We finally got a diver in the water,

but these coordinates really need to pay off.

We've got to get a productive dive in

before the storm gets too strong.

♪♪

emily: How you doing, jeffy boy?

[ mask hisses ]

well, let me do some walking.

Let's see what we're working with right here.

Yeah, roger that.

♪♪

I'm seeing a little bit of color.

It's super-fine.

You are seeing a little bit of fine gold?

Yeah, I'm seeing some fines.

It's nothing to get excited about.

We ain't gonna get rich.

It's definitely not the complement

that I'm used to over on 14,

but, you know, it'll pay the bill for right now.

But we can't expect much out of the first hole.

[ mask hisses ]

♪♪

yeah, copy that. I mean, if we're gonna meet our goal

of 60 ounces,

we can't be working the ground like this.

♪♪

how's that suction?

It's okay.

[ mask hisses ]

♪♪

[ motor sputters ]

♪♪

[ sighs ] [ mask hisses ]

♪♪

having a really hard time trying to -- [ sighs ]

[ mask hissing ]

♪♪

grant.

[ motor whirring ]

[bleep]

bring him up, bring him up now.

Jeff, come up.

[ mask hisses ] what?

Jeff, come up now.

Air compressor is off. Come up.

♪♪

♪♪

[ mask hissing ]

[ sighs ]

♪♪

[ motor whirring ]

grant.

♪♪

[bleep]

bring him up, bring him up now.

Jeff, come up.

[ mask hisses ] what?

Jeff, come up now. Air compressor is off.

Come up.

♪♪

[ grunts ]

♪♪

is it on?

Is it on?

[ mask hissing ]

[ grunts ]

♪♪

♪♪

[ sighs ]

grant: Are you all right?

We're gone for good, we're good.

We're good, we're good.

I just don't like the air compressor dying

when I have a diver at 33 feet.

[ sighs ] it just makes me really -- just scary.

Ultimately, every diver's safety is my responsibility,

and it's not something I take lightly.

Jeff was diving, and his air supply shut off,

and that's not acceptable.

That was scary.

I don't want any emergency ascents like that.

I don't want any compressor failures

like that on my operation.

♪♪

emily: Sorry about that, dude.

Jeff: First dive.

Obviously, we got some bugs to work out.

Yeah, it scared me, dude.

You?

[ laughs ] obviously, I knew that you weren't scared.

I knew you had it, but I was scared.

I know I definitely had enough breaths to get to the top,

you know, it's just 30 feet, you know.

You got down, and you saw some gold, we got a dive in,

even though it was a scary dive.

♪♪

emily: I'm not liking this.

The blizzard is escalating pretty quickly,

so we got to get the hell out of here.

All we need right now is a nice north wind, and we're like,

"goodbye."

this really is starting to build,

the storm that's coming.

So we're gonna make the call,

and we're gonna get off while the getting's good.

Phew.

We've had a couple of scares, I mean,

that emergency ascent with jeff,

that's not what I wanted to happen on the first dive.

Good news is we got a diver on the water,

and there's some gold down there,

but we can't have any more air issues like that again.

I don't think my heart can handle it.

[ wind blowing ]

[ rumbling ]

narrator: 16 miles east --

♪♪

there, there. Ooh, that's good.

Okay, beautiful. Love it.

Narrator: Kris kelly's protege is ready

for her ice diving debut...

Don't worry about the ice all over everything.

You'll get used to it.

...Despite being equipped with only a dry suit,

meaning she'll be without the benefit of any hot water.

How's that? Do you want it tighter?

It's okay? Give me thumbs up.

This is crazy.

I bring in shaunna, and she's not properly outfitted,

and I want her to lead with the best foot forward.

The water's probably under 30 degrees.

I don't know how long she's gonna last, but she's tough.

Andy: Be careful.

♪♪

andy, grab this hose right here,

I don't have my gloves on. Where the [bleep] did she go?

Damn!

♪♪

[ knocking ] umbilical. Umbilical.

♪♪

I got to stay on comms.

I'm gonna do as much as I can to --

[ mask hissing ]

slow down your breathing a little bit.

♪♪

she's breathing hard,

which means she's worried and scared a little bit.

Yeah, there's, like, a weird halo climb,

that's where the fresh water and the saltwater's mixing.

Shaunna: Okay. [ mask hisses ]

just take a second, look around.

Be calm. Everything's cool.

See? I told you you're gonna be just fine.

♪♪

she's already underneath the water, everything's good.

She's already lasted longer than the other diver.

She already lasted longer than the other diver.

♪♪

how are you doing down there?

That's good.

♪♪

calm down a little bit more, just breathe deep.

[ mask hissing ]

now, do you see the nozzle in front of you?

Okay. Now take that nozzle and just move it around on the edge.

You see how there's, like,

a spot that needs to be cleaned up?

Yeah. [ grunts ]

♪♪

all right. You're doing it.

We can see material come through.

Hey, she's making it.

Oh, hey. There you go.

I told you she was gonna make it.

♪♪

since you're the new member of the crew,

you're buying beer for everybody.

[ chuckles ]

kris: Yeah, it's a little bit of muscle work.

How's your head?

How are you doing? Are you cold?

Oh, what the [bleep] it's going down.

What's that?

No, that means you have a rock jam.

Okay. Stop putting material up the nozzle.

When you lose suction,

that means you have a blockage of rocks

in the hose.

Hey, jay? Okay.

If you let that get worse, you'll never get that out,

so you as soon as it goes down --

or it might be the foot valve, too.

Why don't you go look at the foot valve?

Go back to the hole and pick up the sledge hammer.

And then walk over to the foot valve

and smack that thing a couple times with the hammer.

♪♪

'kay, now. It's a big tube underneath the ocean,

looks like an ice ball.

Yeah, it looks like a big ice cube

so just, like, just chip it off,

kind of, like, hit it from an angle.

You'll figure it out.

Hit it once, and you'll make it work.

♪♪

[ grunts ]

okay. Good job. You're making it work.

♪♪

no, I don't want you to come up.

Brad: [ laughs ] andy: No, keep your ass working.

Don't worry, I don't want you to come up.

♪♪

kris: My strategy is trying to keep everyone

under the water for as long as I can.

But when you're ready to fall over,

that's the time to come up.

Brad: Shoe it in!

Andy: She can die. [bleep] good.

Okay. I told you, at least she's not scared.

No, she's not.

It's a good job.

Roger that.

We do have a little bit of a storm coming in.

♪♪

narrator: Coming up --

vernon: It's already picked up quite a bit around here.

We got to secure the camp for high winds.

♪♪

[ wind blowing ]

[ rumbling ]

narrator: Six miles east of nome.

See the storm coming?

Brad: Yeah, I see it, and I want to be out of here

before that hits here.

[ mask hisses ] are you seeing any gold?

I think I see gold.

She's doing it, she's making it.

Narrator: Despite donning a dry suit

unattached to any hot water,

kris kelley's newest diving discovery,

shaunna echohawk, is still braving the frigid bering sea.

[ mask hisses ]

stop breathing. I know, I know.

Calm your breathing a little bit.

Tell me when you've had enough, shaunna,

don't exert yourself too much.

You need to be able to get out of a dangerous situation.

Okay. Well, come on up. You did a good job.

♪♪

come on you got to go rescue her.

[ mask hisses ]

♪♪

shaunna's a little [bleep] up,

and she says she's losing feeling,

so it's time for her to come up.

She did a great job.

She proved yourself today.

♪♪

andy: Hey.

♪♪

brad: [ laughs ]

yeah.

You did a good job, though, you did a real good job.

♪♪

it was amazing.

I got to get used to the cloud,

because I like to know where the hole's at.

Yeah. Always look at the umbilical.

Yeah. It will always lead you back.

Kris: You did a good job, go get changed, get warm.

Thank god I've broken the curse of bree.

Shaunna did great.

She didn't even have hot water going into her suit,

but she pushed through it.

I think this is just what the team needs.

Shaunna: [ sighs ] I could do this.

It's gonna be good, I just need to get the right suit.

I'm glad I got it down. Now I know what to expect.

Now I'm gonna get some gold this season.

Today worked out, everybody's pretty happy with her.

She pulled off her dive, and she lasted a lot longer

than I thought she was going to.

Right now we've got to get the hell out of here.

♪♪

narrator: The siberian express that's been brewing

on the horizon

is now within striking distance.

♪♪

narrator: And 10 miles west of nome.

♪♪

[ indistinct radio chatter ]

♪♪

narrator: Mr. Gold is still pushing as far as he can.

Shawn: Yeah, I need some more time down here, buddy.

Probably another 45 minutes.

It's gonna get close, but okay.

All right.

I know, why he wants to stay, but I got to keep him safe

from the wind.

♪♪

I know he doesn't want to be stuck down there

when it starts blowing.

It'll start dragging him off, you know.

A lot of bad things can happen down there,

so I have to keep track of him, keep track of the wind,

and get him up as soon as I can.

Yeah. [ mask hissing ]

yeah.

Oh, so pretty.

♪♪

the wind's coming.

Narrator: With the storm growing closer...

We got to hurry up, and get this stuff off the ice.

We got to move.

Narrator: ...The crew prepares to move camp out of its path.

Okay. 45 minutes is enough. Time to come up right now.

Give me some more time.

Narrator: Assuming shawn actually comes out

from under the ice.

We got everything prepped, ready to go.

♪♪

I really don't want to leave all this gold down here,

you know.

[ sighs ]

♪♪

okay.

♪♪

all right. It's starting to get real bad.

Come up, boss.

[ mask hisses ]

♪♪

all right. I'm coming up.

♪♪

good job, shawn.

♪♪

man, I wanted to stay down there,

but we better get the hell out of here.

This wind's supposed to pick up tonight.

I stayed down as long as I could.

It's paid off, but we're on good gold,

just the extra 10 minutes

could mean either paying off tomcod

or everything falling through the cracks

and losing everything.

I'm gonna do everything in my power

to make sure that does not happen.

Had a good dive, all in all, keep going at this rate,

tomcod will be mine.

Narrator: As the storm closes in 10 miles east.

♪♪

gary: We've got some winds starting to pick up.

So we got to make sure we tie them all down,

get everything anchored in,

spear on the camp.

Narrator: The last team in the fleet is still out on the ice.

We need to we need to go ahead and pull them up.

Hey, gary.

Gary: Yeah.

We got some high winds coming in.

It's already picked up quite a bit around here.

So I've got to pull you up.

You know we've got to secure the camp. Over.

Okay.

Seeing some visible gold, that's good material right here.

And we've got to pull him up to secure the camp

for high winds.

♪♪

all right. Here comes the diver.

He's done a good dive today for getting pulled a little early.

♪♪

the hole is looking really good,

he found some great material.

In the very end,

we were starting to actually see gold.

Just when it was starting to get good,

we got shut down.

The storm is forcing us off the ice,

and we might not be able to get back out there.

I've got to scrape together the gold we got today

and see what we got. It's judgment day.

Well, let's say we got about four or five hours

or something like that. About four hours, yeah.

All right. Well, let's see what we did.

♪♪

that's one, two.

There it is -- 4.56.

♪♪

I mean, that tells me there's some real gold

on this leaf track.

Narrator: 4.56 ounces is worth over $7,000.

I'm gonna do what I can if I have to sell the damn farm.

I'm gonna buy this thing.

Even with the abbreviated dive

because of the storm,

we've got some good gold here.

I'm convinced I wasn't just getting my chain yanked.

16 is the one I want.

Now we've just got to pull off the ice.

It's always hard to come off that gold,

but we do what we've got to do.

Better safe than sorry.

Narrator: Coming up --

see what we've got here.

10, 20. [ chuckles ]

there's gold in the pan.

Hello and welcome to another episode of

ice mining secrets with kris kelly.

♪♪

today, we're gonna be talking about the weather.

The weather in the arctic,

you can imagine it's probably not very nice.

You know, at 20 degrees,

you think you're in the arctic, but that's not it.

When you put this little symbol here in front of it,

that's a whole new world of cold

that's so cold you could lose fingers.

You add a 20- or 30-mile-an-hour wind,

all of a sudden that ice is like -30,

and that's so cold your eyes stick together when you blink.

That's one step away from death, that's what that is.

And that's everyday life up here in nome, alaska.

I'm pretty smart.

I layer up more than you can believe.

I usually have about 80 pounds of clothing on

at all times in the middle of winter.

The beach line of nome basically runs east and west.

A strong north wind will actually make the ice move away,

break away from the shore and move to russia.

A strong south wind,

and it will actually lift the ocean

and push the ice on the shore.

And then when it goes back down,

it breaks, and there's another chance

of ice washing out to the middle of nowhere.

Ice mining is not that safe.

♪♪

narrator: As the siberian express

rapidly descends on nome,

the ice miners have batten down their hatches

and return safely ashore.

♪♪

kris: It's just gonna be a long haul this year.

Let's just concentrate on the good.

The good is we got some hours in, and we know we're on gold.

Shaunna did a pretty good job.

Everything kind of worked out.

And she's gonna get better every single day.

Narrator: After auditioning a new diver,

the kellys are hoping the extra hand

will pay off in extra gold.

I have never seen somebody

wear a dry suit in the winter, though.

At least she's not scared to get underneath the water.

Let's just say this -- she worked out better

than your last one.

Okay, there you go. She was a success.

This is a whole new workout.

Shaunna really showed she has what it takes.

She's gonna make a great addition to the crew.

Andy's just salty right now, because she's gonna turn out

to be a better diver than he is.

Come on, baby.

2 ounces.

That's 1 ounce.

Oh, yeah. 1 ounce. [ laughs ]

shoot. Calm down.

Put your glasses on.

♪♪

okay. Now we're at 3,

4.

So, 4.3 ounces.

That's still pretty good. No, I know.

Well, this isn't that bad, but it could be a lot better.

Narrator: 4.3 ounces is worth over $6,000.

We keep going on track,

and hopefully we can work out all the bugs.

And shaunna's gonna work harder.

Everything's gonna come together,

and we're gonna get more gold.

Kris: We're not getting as much as I wanted to,

but right now we have a new diver,

and she didn't have the right equipment.

So I think we did pretty good.

Now we just need to make sure we can keep up the pace.

Look at how chunky it is so that's not so bad.

Okay. Let's rock 'n' roll.

♪♪

narrator: Across town --

[ wind blowing ]

♪♪

emily: You can see a little bit of gold in there.

We had definitely a rough start this ice season.

Narrator: Emily riedel is ready for her first clean out

of the season.

Maybe we did better than we thought.

That's what we always hope for,

that the gold is better than it looks.

Winner never makes it easy for us.

I mean, when jeff's compressor failed at 33 feet,

that was a really scary time for me and him.

That's stressful.

Diving at that depth

and having your equipment be so unpredictable.

It seems like as soon as we start getting on some nice gold

and making some nice money, we get chased off by a storm.

But we're just gonna have to see what the scale says.

First, cleanup from tomcod here.

Gonna have to pour and weep.

♪♪

emily: Ugh. At least the gold's nice and chunky.

Ooh, all right. 2.31.

Well, it's something. Jeff: It's not good.

Narrator: 2.3 ounces is worth $3,600.

Emily is finally on the board, but not by much.

It's like, you know, we're running out of time.

Like, the ice is literally disappearing right now.

So, you know, we're down there

we're positioned to succeed,

like, the ice is pretty locked in

at tomcod, like, I think we should just

try to make hay where we are and as best as we can.

Emily: That storm didn't help us and that's just not

what we were hoping to see out there on tomcod.

We're on gold.

It's not great, but we've got to work with what we have.

If there's any chance we can profit at all,

I think we should give it our best shot.

We have a long way to go

before we can get to that 60 ounce count,

but we're gonna keep pushing for it.

Narrator: A mile west.

Shawn: I felt kind of rushed on my dive,

but you can't change mother nature.

We had some pretty high winds come through.

Narrator: After betting he could stay ahead of the storm,

shawn's about to count his winnings.

Shawn: Hey, sometimes you gamble and sometimes you win,

sometimes you lose.

With the season being so short,

we take a few more risks than we probably should,

but no risk, no reward.

I pushed it. I have to.

Heck. I would have pushed it another hour,

if my team didn't pack it up.

Not that they were wrong.

I just like to take these kind of chances.

The bering sea is fickle.

You got to take the opportunities she presents you.

We're getting closer to our $400,000 mark,

but if the ocean gets angry and the winds start blowing,

that ice is gone,

and we just don't know how much more time we'll get.

♪♪

see what we got here.

Storm come in.

10.

Thought we were gonna have to leave the mining grounds,

but we ended up sticking it out.

20. [ chuckles ]

and look, it paid off.

35.40.

Narrator: 35.4 ounces,

that's worth over $56,000.

We didn't panic, pull off, we just stuck it out.

There's gold in the pan.

We're gonna keep on mining.

Tomcod's gonna be mine before you know it.

♪♪

narrator: Vernon and the kellys finally make some noise,

while emily barely makes a peep.

Next time on "bering sea gold" --

kris: Everything is gonna be gold, gold, gold.

We just need to grind it out.

♪♪

shawn: I just got to keep working my ass off.

I'm thinking...

We'll see if the sun's up when I come up.

So that's the mr. Gold we've been hearing about.

Crush it down there. Get us some gold.

We need it, man.

So, you're letting shaunna out dive you?

I guess. You guess.

What the [bleep]

[ equipment hisses ] [ gasps ]

warning.

Emily: All right. Whoo.

No risk, no reward.

Yee-haw. Oh, yeah.

Brad: 30.

Ooh.

♪♪