18x03 - The Art of Cold w*r

[bunniefuu]

Whoa!

Super not ideal.

I don't like the ice here.

It's like, there's this big
overhead ice feature

right behind the dive hole.

If these blocks were
to just, like, come loose,

they would plug up
my dive hole, like, instantly.

In Nome, the miners of the Bering Sea

hunt in low and dark grounds.

And their enemy
is the fickle, volatile ice...

There's not a thing we can do here.

Unknown depths of the ocean,

and sometimes, even themselves.

I'll tell you what, if you don't
wanna do it, then don't do it!

To succeed in their quest for gold

they must master the art of w*r

on a frozen battleground.

Bring that gold!

Yeah!

What could be better than this?

Hell yeah.

We got a nice, flat expense here that,

hopefully is workable.

You don't know what's under the snow.

It might be, you know,
a... a nasty surprise.

But this is a nice, big expanse of flat ice.

What could be better than this?

El Nino wreaked havoc
on most of the mining grounds,

but not for Vernon Adkison,

whose Claim 56 boasts
the flattest ice in town.

And miners throughout Nome
have come knocking on his door

to become his tenant.

I'll give you two weeks, no royalties,

and then after that, 15%.

Including Mr. Gold...

Sounds like a deal then.

What are you, asking
for percentages these days?

And Zeke Tenhoff.

The good guy percentage is 15%.

Well, 15 is fair. I appreciate that.

Right now, we're getting
ready to hit it hard and heavy.

Claim 56 has become a bevy of activity.

Now, it's the field general's turn
to start mining on his own claim,

and the salty skipper
has his sights set high.

Well, that, looks like the ice is about

four-and-a-half feet thick here.

So, now we'll drop the camera
and take a look around.

See if it looks like it's,
gonna be a good area for us.

I've got an ambitious plan for this one.

I wanna pave for a nitrox dive system

that will allow my divers to go deeper

and stay longer than ever before.

That means we'll be able
to access untouched areas

that should be loaded with gold.

I put together an all-star
crew to try to pull this off.

I've got Gary Panos back with me.

He's been with me a lot of years,

and he's the best diver I've had.

Kevin, who's a great tender.

And I've got some new blood.

Chris Nunik, he's a rookie
diver in the Bering Sea.

And we're going straight to a spot

that was hot last season.

We've got some nice-sized cobble.

You know, there... there's sand.

So, it's likely right
on the sand cobble land,

which is a good thing.

A lot of times,

you'll find gold right where
the sand and cobble meet.

This is where we're gonna start.

Yeah, let's get on back and
finish putting our gear together.

We ought to go ahead
and just pull it out there.

We drop down in that hole,

we're gonna be
on top of some good gold.

I gotta admit,

it's pretty nice being royalty free,

but we're eating up
the first week already.

We only have one more week left,

and then we gotta start paying royalties.

Vernon's tenant,

Shawn Pomrenke,
is looking to cash in on 56

before he needs to start
paying the landlord a cut.

Time is money.

Every hour that you're not running

is another hour you ain't
making an ounce of gold.

And today, he's looking

for his top lieutenants
to come through big.

Yes, sir.

We're here, back in business.

Get that gold, Joe.

- Ahoy!
- Ahoy!

We got to get some gold before
we gotta share it with Vernon.

Joe Fullwood, he's my ace in the hole.

What's up, Joe?

He's probably one
of the best divers in town.

He's been working with me for years.

Smells like gold, smells like money.

Right now, we're way behind

where we needed to be
to kick start the inland mine.

But we tapped into a hot pastry,

so I need Joe to get
down there and get at it.

Yeah! Trying to see some gold.

I'm gonna get Joe in the water.

Let's go, Joe!

All right, you guys got a copy up there?

Copy, over. Roger.

Hell, yeah!

I'm just gonna poke around a little bit.

Nice, big chunk of weathered
bedrock right under the hole.

That's a good sign.

They're bunch of overburden.

Not where I'm at.

All right, you guys
wanna iron-hook me up?

Let this silt suck into the nozzle.

What are you seeing down there, Joe?

Yeah, let's get it, Joe.

Okay, let's start up the air compressor,

and let's get going here.

Go get some gold.

So do you feel lucky?

Yeah, I feel lucky.

That's good. I'm glad. I like luck.

If any team could use a little luck

so far this season, it's Kris
Kelly and Reaper Nation.

As the captain's grand plan
to work, rarely mined claims...

My God! It's going bad.

Hasn't been so grand.

And if they fail to find gold again today,

it could be time to wave the white flag.

All we can hope for right now is
hopefully not too much overburden

with enough gold to stay here.

I mean, if it was amazing
gold, I'd be happy as.

But let's... Right now, let's
worry about getting a paycheck.

This season's been a disaster.

I thought these claims were
gonna be loaded with gold.

So far, I've been dead wrong.

But my diver, Yukon John,

claims he saw trace amounts of gold

on that claim a couple seasons ago.

So, we're gonna go check it out.

Honestly, this may be our last hope.

Comm, check?

We're good on comms.

Light? Light.

Okay, now. Bam!

Good? You're good? Everything good?

Okay. Good.

Please, Lord, give us gold!

Yeah.

John, how's it going?

Keep... Well, keep searching around.

Do your best, okay?

You know, like, we just keep running

across a lot of frozen ground

underneath the water and that bull.

Okay, report.

Well, that's it for this.

He said the hole's frozen.

We can't even get to the pay layer

to see if there's gold or not.

Like, I'm sure there's gold on this claim,

but with the ground being frozen,

we're not gonna get it.

And it sucks!

Okay, let's get out of here.

We didn't have the greatest plan

coming into this ice mining season,

because if you think you're gonna,

like, spend every day
prospecting, making a hole,

moving your operation,
when, in the summer,

you wanna move 20 feet,
you just float over 20 feet.

You know, like, in the winter,
you wanna move 20 feet,

you gotta spend
all day long cutting holes,

moving the equipment, making
sure everything's dialed in.

We're basically a DEFCON 1.

We'll do one more hole on John's
coordinates, and then that's it.

If we don't find anything,

it might be goodbye season,

and maybe goodbye Reaper Nation.

The ground's frozen,

we're not gonna waste
any more time here.

Okay, let's get out of here.

Back in Nome...

We're getting hooked up.

Gonna start dragging
the equipment out on the ice.

We've got a spot located out there.

We'll open that hole up
and get everything set up.

Vernon Adkison is ready to
lead his all-star squad into battle.

Getting ready to drag
this stuff out on the ice.

Hopefully, it will tow well.
A lot of fresh snow,

so it's slick.

Well, we're getting ready to get
underway with this comm shack.

And then when we pull it out of here,

because of the way those pontoons,

I don't wanna pull it at a side angle.

I wanna pull it out

pretty much keeping in a straight line.

And see if the, snow
machine is gonna move it.

Kind of embedded there right now.

Come over here and help me shake it.

Okay.

Okay.

As soon as it took a jerk,
the... the, rig shifted

on the pontoons and the pontoons,

these lashings have to be at a diagonal.

They can't be straight up and down.

It ain't gonna work.

It's gotta be re latch.

Gary's a hell of a diver,
but he's been slacking.

This stuff should have
been ready days ago.

Now he's not doing things right.

I told him to lash
these pontoons diagonally

and he didn't listen.

So now we gotta do it all over again.

This mistake is gonna
cost us even more time.

Rope? You can get rope anywhere!

All right, Gary, I mean, look...

Okay. I'll tell you what.

If you don't wanna do it, then don't do it!

The job is hard
enough, you know, physically.

It's just drama we don't need.

Everybody needs to nut up and shut up.

So we gotta take a job.

It's just in a day's work,
you know, light this up.

So it's just a matter
of blocking up the, shack.

Deflating the pontoons
and positioning them properly.

And now we gotta relatch them
so that the last thing go diagonally.

And that way, when you pull,

it... it doesn't allow for any lateral forces.

Yep.

Go! Go, go, go!

Go, go, go, go!

Not everything is just perfect
every minute of the day.

No, you gotta stick your nose into it,

wiggle around and try
to find a way to do it.

Now I have hope.

Pump engines are all hooked up.

All that's running, water
flowing through the sluice box.

Water heater's been running all day.

And we have all the pumps running.

Everything's running great.

We should be able to dive.

- All right, sounds good, man. Come on.
- Whoo!

After striking a deal with Vernon to mine

on Claim 56,

new daddy, Zeke Tenhoff, is ready
to begin the w*r for gold this winter.

I had this memory from 15 years ago.

I was wandering around in the west
end and I got into some good gold,

and I got, like, 20 ounces
of gold in a few days.

I just feel like it's kind of fortuitous
that I remembered this now,

and, like, I hadn't
remembered it for a long time.

This is kind of an out of the way area

that dredgers don't usually go,

that could work to our benefit.

I worked this area a long
time ago, like, 15 years ago,

and I remember seeing some good gold.

Since it's so far off the beaten path

of where everyone usually dredges,

maybe nobody has hit it yet.

I really hope that the gold is still hot here

because I need to stack
some serious bank

to get my yurt ready for my wife and kid.

I'm just gonna smash down
there and just start punching holes.

There's the possibility
that we're gonna run into

a bunch of frozen ground. If
there's a bunch of frozen ground,

I'll know pretty quick that
we're not gonna to stay here.

See, I don't wanna burn any
time if it doesn't look good.

I'll be able to know
after, like, a couple hours,

whether or not we're gonna stay here.

Right, this should, tell
us what we need to know.

Everything's looking great.

That's great. Awesome,
awesome. All systems go.

Whoa!

You guys got me up there on the comm?

Yeah, I got you.

Yeah, super not ideal.

Dude, I don't like the ice here.

It's like, there's this big, like,

overhead ice feature
right behind the dive hole.

It goes through, like, three
feet of ice to, like 10 feet of ice.

And and it looks really sketchy

because it's, like,
all super loose blocks, dude.

If these loose blocks were
to just, like, come loose

they would plug up
my dive hole, like, instantly.

Hopefully, I can still get through it.

I mean, they're, like, kind of, like, slushy.

It's like a big chandelier of ice.

All right, well, I'm gonna
start digging holes here.

I don't see any cobble around.

It's just like all, sand.

There's probably rocks under the sand.

I'll find a layer that the gold would be at,

but, you know, and we'll see
if there's gold on that layer.

All right, that sounds good.

You wanna spool up both of
those pumps to about three-quarter?

- It's ready for suction.
- Okay.

How's it looking down there?

Have you hit cobble yet?

I got a bunch of sand here.

I think what we'll have to do is
just dig a big hole in this sand

and it'll take me a while to
uncover wherever the pay layer is.

Well, I'll give it a try here.

While Zeke fights on

across the ice...

It's a beautiful day today.

The only problem is it's
about 15 degrees below zero.

Vernon Adkison is looking
to get orders to his troops

and start heating up on the ice.

Well, what do you think, Gary?

We about ready to kick it off?

Yeah, we've probably got another
half hour of unthaw and everything,

running water through it.

But other than that,
yeah, we're getting closer.

Damn near, I mean, I think
we're about ready to go.

So we had a rocky start today,

but we're finally ready to fire up

and get on some of the millions in gold

that's under our feet.

We're good to go, man.

So it's quite cold.

When it gets this cold,
equipment breaks.

I think so. Yep.

Fuel is off, but you can
turn the fuel back on.

Well, actually, it has better compression.

Whoa! What the...

Something's not right in there, dude.

Nothing is working.

So, the generators blew up?

So, we're dead in the water.

I got to go dig up another generator.

I just got to get on the phone
and start working the phone.

We're done here, there's
not a thing we can do here.

All our equipment is dead.

We're going to pack this scrap up,

go back in and find a generator.

Nothing's working.

As Vernon hopes to generate some gold,

five miles west...

Right now, let's worry
about getting a paycheck.

Gold is the most important thing.

Once again,

Reaper Nation has
dug themselves into a foxhole,

and they're down to their
soldier's last coordinates.

Come on, John!

We can't keep moving
and moving. It costs money.

And we haven't seen anything
promising on this claim so far.

We have to make something
happen on this claim right now.

If we don't find gold
on this hole, we're done.

I'll pull the plug.

I'll be forced to admit defeat.

Go get some gold.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

Got the engine idles up, John's
down there starting to prospect.

I'm gonna get on the comp.

John, how's it going?

John, status report.

Yeah!

Good job, buddy.

That's why I let you take this lot today.

PJ, we're on gold.

About time, baby.

Yeah!

Yeah, baby!

How you doing down there, partner?

Get it, Joe, get it!

After four hours,

it's still "all systems Joe"

for Team Pomrenke.

What's even better is there's
no royalty here.

Joe went down and crushed it.

And with all the gold I need
to start this inland mine,

it couldn't have come at a better time.

Hell yeah. Good job, Joe.

Seeing good gold falling
out of the loose material,

good news.

Time to clean the box.

Payday.

That's what we call this. Payday.

Time to clean some gold.

Ooh, yeah!

Payday!

Across the b*ttlefield...

Hey, so what kind of gold are we on?
Tell me about it.

That's exactly what we want.

Good job, buddy!

After three hours,

Yukon John is still on the gold,

and Reaper Nation is enjoying their
first successful day of the season.

I'm real thankful.
You know, God loves us.

Sometimes.

Okay, come on, let's get out of here.

Okay, he's coming up. Get ready.

Stand by to burst into action.

Start pulling the umbilical light in.

Grab him.

How'd it go?

Yeah!

Good!

Good things come to those who wait.

And we've been waiting a long time.

So I hope that scale
tells me something good today.

Okay, good job, everybody!

Good job, John, mainly.

Let's go.

Reaper Nation tastes
victory for the first time.

But three miles east...

So once you put those in there,

they're gonna stay in there, right?

The Adkison team

is still struggling to join the battle.

We, roused up some more generators,

and spent the rest of the day
getting them back up and running.

And the reason
all these things have been

malfunctioning,

is because of this cold weather.

All right, so,

if we can get in the water today,

get all the systems tested out

I heard you last night
coughing and sneezing.

I heard him getting sick last night,

and I was worried that
you both are now sick.

Well, I'll tell you what.

If you feel like you're coming...

If you're on the verge, you're
not going down, that's 100%,

until you get well.

Why is congestion such
a serious issue for divers?

Let's get a BSG schoolroom lesson

on why a cold isn't so hot.

While it may seem harmless
to us folks on dry land,

the cold can be a major
complication for divers...

Damn it.

Causing congestion
that blocks ears and sinuses,

preventing equalization
of air pressure in their head.

Yeah, yeah, come on up. Come on up.

There's blood.

And in extreme cases,

can lead to ruptured eardrums.

Something's wrong.

I will not send anybody down
if they're sick.

It ain't going to happen.

You, on the other hand,

still need a familiarization dive.

We could get that out of the way today

- and coach you through the process...
- Yeah.

And get you comfortable down there.

So, what do you think, Gary?
Can you roll with that?

Well, wait a minute. What the... Gary?

- Well, what do you want?
- Okay, let's... Let's do it...

Let's do it the way you want.
How you want to do it?

You tell me how you want to do it.

Okay, all right, let's just
shut everything down.

Shut it down. We're getting off the ice.

- Shut it down. We're getting off the ice.
- We're doing it!

Me.

I'm sick and tired of this...

It's costing me money.

Hey, Chris, I need you to
take me back over the road.

Okay.

I got to get the out of here, before I

before I lose it.

I got to get out of here before
some things start exploding.

Tomorrow, if doesn't happen,

they will explode, I guarantee you.

Put divers in the water
or somebody's going.

Come on, come on, come on!

Hell yeah!

Three, four ounces.

- We'll do a fist bump.
- Yeah!

So how does gold from the sluice box

wind up looking like
a glistening mound of

well, gold?

It looks like a fat cleanup.

Miners clean out the sluice box

by removing and washing mats

that collect gold and heavy minerals

in a mixture called concentrates.

Those concentrates are run
through fine filters...

Gold rolling up the wheel.

Like gold wheels

to separate the gold
from the other minerals.

The miners then cook the gold

to remove impurities, such as mercury.

And, finally, the gold is put on a scale

for miners to weigh their new fortune.

That'll put a smile on his face.

Yeah.

All right, yeah, so it looks like

a lot of deep silt and sand here.

The kind of silt and sand

that's just gonna murk us out,
like, way too bad.

After three hours with little sign of gold,

Commander Zeke Tenhoff
is still fighting the fight.

I'm able to expose, basically,

the clay underneath the sand.

But, I mean, I'm not even seeing
any specks of gold on it, either.

Yeah. I don't really have any more
business down here that I wanna do.

I'm just seeing, like, layers
of silt and, like, boring gravel.

I don't know, guys.
I think we might have to

go find somewhere
that's not quite as sandy

and where there's deeper water.

Yeah, roger that. We can do better.

I mean, like, yeah. I mean, it
sucks having to move all of our gear.

But, you know, we're going into
this knowing that we have to prospect,

so I think it's reasonable that we're
going to have to dig a couple holes

before we get on something we like.

Yeah, that's just
the name of the game, man.

Comes with the territory.

All right, I'm gonna head up.

Yeah, roger that.

Grab him up.

I saw, like, three specks of gold.

- Not good enough.
- All right.

You know, we're just getting gold.

We need to get something where it...

Find something we're excited about,

even if it takes
a couple of moves to do it.

Yeah.

I'm not looking forward to moving
again, but I'm prepared to do it.

Somewhere around here, there's
got to be more gold than that.

Yeah.

I know there will be.

Yeah, ready to see some nuggets.

The fruits of our labor.

With Vernon's royalty
right around the corner,

the Pomrenke team is looking
for an army of ounces on the scale.

Well, we've got one more week
of no royalty.

We better get back out there and
suck up some more of this gold?

Yeah. Yeah.

We better take advantage of it
while we can.

Here you go.

One

two, three, four, five,

six, seven

eight...

- Damn near nine.
- Heck yeah.

8.9 ounces is worth over 20 grand.

And just like that, there's
a new gold leader in Nome.

I'm excited.

Yeah.

We're gonna go get some more dives in.

It sounds like we're coming
into something pretty hot.

- Yeah...
- Hopefully, this week,

because we got this last week
of no royalties, so...

Otherwise, we'd have to give Vernon

and his greedy little paws in there.

Let's keep this to ourselves, right?

Across town...

Very cold over there?

You'll be fine.
We're not gonna be too much longer.

No matter what
this cleanup says right now,

things are going to get better.

The soldiers of Reaper Nation

look to reap gold for
the first time this season.

Note to editing team...

We really want to go from...

Skip all this, and just do the clean...
the weighing at the end.

Here we go.

Come on, baby.

Come on!

Come on!

We almost got five. Come on, baby!



So we got five ounces.

Good job, everybody. That wasn't bad.

Yeah, good job.

This haul is worth over $11,000,

and the Kelly team's relentless
combat finally pays off.

I know we're gonna make more.
This is just the beginning.

Five ounces, it's a great start.

You know? Like, we know
we're on great gold.

We know that we're gonna k*ll it.

Everything is gonna work out for us.

Should be a really nice week.

You okay?

Andy's having a little trouble over there.

- Andy...
- Where's your paper towels?

Andy's very excited we got five ounces.

We know where the gold is, so watch us.

Shawn Pomrenke takes
the lead in the gold count,

while the Kelly army
marches onto the scoreboard.

Next time on Bering Sea Gold...

Today is D day.

Either we get this straightened out

or he gets on a plane
and gets the hell out of here.

Pull him in! Pull him in!

She's locked up solid.

She's done for, boys.

We're

I can't feel my left hand in this.

Come on, baby.

We're getting a lot more gold
than we thought we were getting.