Gold Rush

Narrator: On this "gold rush"...

I got boulders the size of small cars in my way.

There could be 100 or 200 ounces just in this little section.

Fireworks.

-Yeah! -Whoo!

With this cleanup, we beat last year's total.

That's a big pan of gold.

captions paid for by discovery communications

narrator: In dawson city,

tony beets is on the ropes.

His dream of getting his second dredge

running this season is over.

At the start of this season,

tony vowed he'd barge his 70-year-old dredge

down the yukon river to dawson.

But problems with his fleet of barges...

...And the struggle to find a skipper...

I can't turn my back on this for a day.

...Have left the $1-million dredge

stranded 100 miles away at thistle creek.

Now, with the yukon river starting to freeze,

tony has no choice

but to get his fleet onto dry land.

First up, tony's 20-ton barge.

Hey, tony! Pull the slack up!

Hey, hey, hey!

Tony's son mike

will haul it out of the water using the oshkosh,

a military-grade eight-wheel drive semi,

capable of towing 60 tons.

Daughter monica helps out in the loader.

Monica: People seem to call my dad crazy.

But, I mean, I think he's actually done

pretty well for himself.

Can't back up straight?

Don't worry. We'll push it.

Cheeseman: Looking good there!

Good!

All right.

My tires, they're basically sunk in.

hooked on. -Okay.

He needs the help of his little sister!

Narrator: For two months,

tony has been trying to convince

sternwheeler captain brad whitelaw

to skipper his power barge.

Yeah, man. I couldn't be more glad.

Yeah, no.

This, uh, this came on real quick.

Running out of water and filling full of ice.

Season's done. What are you up to?

Uh, that's a pretty dangerous trip.

And now, the river's down so low.

-Yep. -Lot of ice in there.

Uh, tell you what, as long as I'm the captain,

if it's too dangerous...

-Yep. -...We're turning back.

I'll always help the beets family, tony.

See ya, tony.

So, yeah.

Todd: It's all hands on deck,

the final push to the end the season.

Going for 1,000 ounces.

I really want to make sure

that my guys are taken care of for the winter.

Hopefully, we can pull this off.

Narrator: To hit his 1,000-ounce,

$1.2-million season goal,

todd hoffman is running two operations,

fairplay and sacramento.

Both fairplay and us, we're on the gold.

We're doing good.

But every time I look at those mountains,

I'm a little bit scared and a little bit more worried

because, uh, at any day,

it could dump 2 or 3 feet of snow overnight.

And we will be shut down.

Narrator: 10,000 feet up in the rockies,

winter is about to hit.

Aw, crap.

At fairplay...

This sucks!

You can't catch gold with mud.

...Rusty red is running out of water.

I'll show you some mud, todd.

Look at that water.

-Wow. -It's thick.

I don't have any fresh water coming.

Yeah.

Look at the snow on the mountains.

All the headwaters are frozen.

We got no water coming in now.

The temperature has plummeted to 20 degrees.

And the creek that feeds their holding pond has frozen.

Hopefully freddy figures out the solution

because pretty scary right now.

Without water, we're not getting any gold.

Trust me.

Freddy: That river, we got water.

It's just getting there's gonna be a nightmare, trey.

It's gonna be a nightmare.

Narrator: Their only option -- the nearby platte river.

But it's 200 feet down a 70-degree slope.

I think I'm just gonna go for it.

I'm gonna try and cut on this slope.

Freddy: Takes some big cajones.

So you just take it easy, be safe,

and keep it upright.

Whew. I hope this works.

Narrator: Freddy's old friend, trey poulson,

has over 20 years of operating experience.

My dad had a saying growing up. He'd always say it.

If you're not living on the edge,

you're just taking up space.

Right now, we're living on the edge.

Basically cutting out little avalanches.

I'm letting the bank come down

and using the material that comes down to push out.

You really have to be careful.

Too much of that on that side, pop you up.

It can be a bad day.

Holy moly.

that's what'll get you right there.

That come down on your tracks

when you're down on the side and have nowhere to go.

There! We got her! We're down on land.

Narrator: With the road completed,

it's andy's job to transport the pump down to the river.

I, uh, I don't know if I can go down this.

Poulson: What do you think if I brought the dozer around

and just, uh, acted as an anchor for you?

10-4.

Better safe than sorry.

Freddy: Got to hook this chain to that dozer

to keep this hoe from tipping over.

Come on in, trey.

On your call, andy.

All right. Let's roll.

Easy, andy.

Easy, guys.

Spinks: I'll tell you what.

When you got steel tracks and you're on solid rock,

if I start sliding and he can't hold me,

we both go all the way to the bottom.

Freddy! I'm slipping! I'm slipping!

Andy! Watch out!

Narrator: In colorado, andy spinks

is teetering on the edge.

I'm slipping! I'm slipping!

I'm slipping!

Narrator: To provide water for the wash plant,

he's hauling a pump down

to the river in his 70-ton excavator.

Just set the pump right there, andy!

Spinks: Okay.

That son of a gun is steep.

It's like roller skating on ball bearings.

If that sucker would've taken off,

if you hadn't have been hooked to me,

I'd have been all the way in the river.

-No doubt. -Let's get the lines

hooked up, pump some water.

-Okay. Sounds good. -Starting the pump.

I got 1,200 rpm, trey!

1,300!

Narrator: Freddy's new water supply is flowing.

The hoffman crew can get back

to running rusty red at 150 yards an hour.

Sure a nice sight, water coming into that pond.

Hopefully now, we have no more obstacles to our 1,000!

Parker: The winter's setting in.

We still have a lot of gold to find

and real cold this time of year.

Narrator: Parker is still 1,100 ounces short

of his 4,000-ounce, $4.8-million season goal.

And the klondike winter will freeze him out

in the next couple of weeks.

Ness: Not quite at our goal yet.

But, you know, we've never gone home before

without hitting our goal.

And I don't think anything's gonna change this year.

In fact, I know nothing's gonna change this year.

We'll be here fighting it till the bitter end.

And we're gonna get it.

Narrator: At indian river,

rick is pushing hard to get 1,000 ounces

while up at the creek cut,

parker is running some of the best

pay dirt he has ever mined.

Parker: This creek cut's paying off good.

But, you know, we're still a long way off of 4,000 ounces.

If they had any problems, then we're gonna be in trouble.

What the

narrator: Overnight, the creek cut has flooded.

Is it just bleeding through?

Man: Yeah, through here, this berm.

Just keeps finding places to crack through.

Parker: It looks like we didn't pack the thing down enough.

-Yeah. -And this could really cost us.

Narrator: Water from the settling pond