Bering Sea Gold

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.

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 paid for by discovery communications

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.

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.

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.

bye.

As emily hits the trail, 10 miles west

Weather alert north, 30 knots, this is not good,

not good at all.

Mr. Gold's also ready to lock horns

with mother nature.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The gold seems pretty consistent.

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.

16 miles east.

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.

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.

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.

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

last year, man. That failed.

This chick is an undersea water harvester.

She's a diver.

She did a better diver than you, supposedly.

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.

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?

no different. Okay. So this is bree.

Hi.

This summer,

he added rookie, bree savage, to the team

to get more hours underwater.

We're gonna give her a shot.

But in the end,

her contribution to the dive team...

Hey. Calm down. Are you okay?

...Was about five minutes.

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.

Oh, here she comes.

This her? This is her.

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

We'll see.