12x15 - Pain in the Ice

[bunniefuu]

Narrator:
Now on "bering sea gold"...

The arctic storm that brought
the fleet to its knees...

♪♪

...Has come and gone,

But it's stolen precious time
from the miners

And left the thinning, unstable
ice on the verge of collapse.

♪♪

Now as they venture back out...

...The only question is...

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

Narrator: ...Where's the
breaking point?

Three, two, one.

♪♪

[ wind blowing ]

♪♪

♪♪

All right. Making an early
morning of it,

Making an early go of it.

Narrator:
For the battered fleet,

There's no time to spare

So emily riedel's on the move
before sunrise.

We got kicked out last night
by weather.

One last straw
from the bering sea, but...

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The captain's
looking for enough ounces

To prep her
growing fleet for summer,

But with only one partial dive
so far this winter,

That gold seems
a million miles away.

We're so late into the season,

And we don't even have
a dive in.

We've lost all this time
because of the storm.

I'm gonna head out there
to the camp,

And I'm just hoping that
everything is kind of

In one piece so we can just kind
of brush off the equipment

And get to work.

We've got to get a diver down.

♪♪

We're getting
to the point of no return.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 8 miles west.

[ wind blows ]

♪♪

Shawn: On our way back out.

Hopefully, we can get back out
and get back to mining.

Narrator: Mr. Gold's
got the pedal to the metal, too.

♪♪

And it looks like we got
a little bit of snow last night.

Hopefully, all the equipment's
still sitting

Just where we left it.

♪♪

Narrator:
Aiming for a hefty $400,000

To complete his down payment
on the tomcod claim,

The storm didn't do shawn
any favors.

Shawn: The storm hurt us.

There's such a limited time
in the winter to be mining.

You can't afford
to be kicked off the ice

For any reason.

You've got to be out there
when you can.

And if you can't be out there,

You got to figure out
some way to make up for it.

I just got to keep working my
a*s off, work around the clock.

I'm not gonna let this crown go.

♪♪

[ wind blowing ]

♪♪

Had a lot of wind last night.

Luckily,
it didn't blow anything away...

♪♪

...Like the ice
and everything on it.

Right now, we're just trying
to pile up as much gold

As we can in the box.

♪♪

I'm feeling pretty good.

Back's feeling good,
elbow's feeling good.

I might as well give it a try.

Hell yeah.

In the winter, a good dive
is three to four hours,

But I've just lost a whole day.

So today three, four hours,
it just ain't gonna cut it.

That's why I need to double
the amount of hours

On the bottom to stay on pace.

We call this a marathon dive.

Give him more hot water.

Should we hook up
that other bottle?

I might like another bottle.

Shawn: It's been a while since
I've done a marathon dive.

I may be a little bit older

And may have a few
more miles on me,

But I'm not gonna
let anything stop me

From getting the tomcod.

♪♪

Right now, there is no time
to waste at all.

Ice mining's
a very short season.

No time to practice,

You just got to jump in
and get it done.

Too much on the line.

This many hours under the ice
is dangerous.

It's easy to get tired,
and the more tired you are,

The harder it is to get yourself
to the top if need be.

And we're deep here,

Even deeper than
the christine rose can reach.

You can get the bends,
you can get hypothermia,

Definitely not something
an amateur can do.

♪♪

I'm feeling pretty good.

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

Joe: Oh, yeah.

♪♪

♪♪

It's a beautiful view.

♪♪

On the bottom.

All right. I'm heading
for the nozzle.

How's that hot water
treating you?

Oh, it feels great, man. Over.
[ walkie-talkie buzzes ]

Oh, yeah. I can feel...
About 118 right there.

Nice and toasty.

Time to put
some gold in the box.

I got to find something.

Where you at?

Ooh. Oh.

Yeah, I'm seeing
a couple pickers.

Oh, really good.

Perfect.

♪♪

Hot water feels good,
back feels good.

♪♪

Think I'm gonna stay down here
for a while. [ chuckles ]

♪♪

Narrator: 15 miles east.

♪♪

We're up and running,
everything's good.

Got no complaints today,
which is pretty rare.

Everything's going great,
good energy and all that crap.

We're not arguing,
couldn't have asked for more.

Well, I could ask for
a lot more gold.

Narrator: The kelly camp
survived the storm,

And now the captain's ready to
kick the season into overdrive.

Everything is gonna be
gold, gold, gold.

We just need to grind it out.

Narrator: So far this winter,

To get the gold they need
for a journey down the coast,

The kellys, well,
they haven't been thriving,

Exactly.

♪♪

Okay. Let's do this.

I'm gonna lead the way today
and dive.

Andy, you follow me.

All right.
Shaunna's gonna clean up.

Narrator: But kris has
an ambitious plan

For a prolonged golden grab.

Everyone did relay races
when they were kids

So that's what we're gonna do
today with mining.

I'm gonna start,
andy's the middle,

And shaunna's gonna be
the closer.

My idea to having
additional diver,

This is gonna pay off huge,

'cause I need to make up
that time on the box.

Just keep grinding away material
till we clean out this hole,

Then we just keep
doing it all over again.

When I'm the lead diver,

My job is to put everyone
on the gold

And then have the other divers
clean up the area.

Some people would feel pressure

When in this kind of
a lead position,

But that's what I'm here for,
I'm here to lead the way.

So that's what I have
to do right now

To get this whole thing to work.

It's critical.

Eh, you're good. [bleep] it.

Is that better?

Five, four, three, two, one.

♪♪

♪♪

Kris, just be careful.

It's a really low ceiling
over there,

I don't want you getting
hung up over there.

♪♪

What's the height down there?

Oh, that's good.
We must on high tide, then.

We just got kris in the water,
everything's up, running.

It's great, smooth.

It's gonna be a good day.

♪♪

How's it going down there, kris?

♪♪

Kris: Is that gold?

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

See? He's happy already.

[ laughs ]

Okay. Good job.
Put it all in the box.

Now since I'm on the comms,

If andy can get
on the burger machine

And start making his burgers.

♪♪

Everything's great.

It's a nice day on the ice,
I mean, why not have a barbecue?

♪♪

How many other people
are out here on the ice

Barbecuing burgers while their
diver's down there making money?

♪♪

You got kris down, and andy's
getting on the grill right now.

This is the perfect day.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Coming up...

A near-death experience,

Man, you won't be worried
about that anymore.

♪♪

[ engine rumbling ]

♪♪

Everything's going great.

We're finally on track.

We got to make every second
count today.

Narrator: After the storm
forced them off the ice,

Kris kelly is looking
to make up time

With a three-person relay dive.

Brad: There's new material
running through the box.

Yeah, I think today's
been going really good.

♪♪

Okay. Good job.

Narrator:
Positioned on the gold,

The captain closes out
his leg of the relay.

♪♪

After being underneath
the water for so long,

Every little move
you make down there,

It has the resistance
of the water.

I bet you have tens of thousands
of gallons on top of you.

Even though I'm only so deep,

I've got all the weight
of the water

Plus all the weight of the ice.

It's not a big deal.

Right now it's
grind, grind, grind time.

Narrator:
Now it's time for the next diver

To cook up
something big down below.

Okay. I did my part.
I got us on gold.

Now we just have
to keep the gold flowing

The rest of the day.

Andy's our heavy hitter
so he needs to deliver now.

♪♪

[ whistling ]

Thank you.

[ whistling stops ]

Andy's getting ready
to get suited up

And get under the water.

♪♪

Oh [bleep] man.

♪♪

Come on. Let's get going.

What's the matter?

♪♪

If it does, I'll [bleep]

What the [bleep]

The whole thing with shaunna was
to get more hours,

Not get shaunna to replace you.

So you're letting shaunna
outdive you.

I guess. You guess.

What the [bleep]

Andy forgot
his thermal underwear

Which if he lets
his neoprene suit touch him,

He breaks out
in some kind of weird rash,

And he can't dive
for the rest of the season.

So he needs to not dive today.

He's gonna let shaunna
outdive him,

And he's not
gonna get any gold at all.

So andy remembers
to bring his burgers,

But he forgets
his thermals. Real smart.

Right, look it.

A hot hamburger in the middle
of the day on the ice

Definitely kicks up morale.

And one of andy's only
good traits is he can cook,

But, come on, look at him,
you can tell he likes food,

Which tells me food
is way more important to andy

Than money.

So much for three divers today.

Did you leave shaunna
in a good spot, anyways?

Kris: Half the gold's
right at the nozzle.

Good.

So, she's not gonna
have to work,

She's just gonna
have to move material.

Shaunna's had one little dive
underneath the ice,

And now she has to stay down
longer than we planned

And has to make up
for andy's screw up.

Well, I'm getting ready
for my longest dive.

I'm excited. I'm confident.

Hopefully, everyone
will be proud.

♪♪

If shaunna can't pull this off,

Our season's basically
off the rails.

♪♪

Kris: Are you okay?
Is everything good?

♪♪

Shaunna: Yeah, it's good.

♪♪

[ breathing heavily ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

How's it going down there?

Did you pick up right where
I left you off,

Right on that shelf?

If you're not finding
a lot of gold,

Take your nozzle and move
to another part of the wall.

I just want you
constantly processing material.

Kris: You know what
the difference is,

You know, that she's used to
floating around

Underneath the ocean
and picking little things up.

This is the hard work.

♪♪

Kris: Okay. Now what do you see?

♪♪

Good job, shaunna,
just keep it up.

That's great spirit.
Just keep going.

Make my money.

[ chuckles ]

I know, the novelty effect
will wear off in a little while.

A near-death experience,

Man, you won't be worried
about that anymore.

Yeah, I know. [ laughs ]

Andy: [ laughs ]

Kris: Andy, shut up.
Who's allergic to neoprene?

♪♪

Narrator: The kellys have
the gold flowing,

But 15 miles west...

Emily: It's really nice
that it didn't get into

Too much of a deep freeze
yesterday.

Narrator: ...Emily riedel
is still ramping up.

It snowed.

We're just gonna take it
one step at a time.

Hopefully, everything fires up.

[ singsong voice ]
good morning, generator.

Please start. [ chuckles ]

Please fire right up.

[ generator starts ]

Yay!

♪♪

Whoo-hoo-hoo-ooh.

[ normal voice ] this is
our first glimpse of mercy

For the season.

Everything's intact,

Everything's kind of
ready to go.

Now we just got to get
our camp back up and running

So we can get
a diver in the water a.S.A.P..

Let's get the hot water
fired up, get you in the water.

I haven't done this
diving-under-the-ice stuff

In a while.

I mean, the cold don't care
about how experienced I am.

Today's grant's first dive,

And I've had my doubts
about his ability

To stay on the gold in the past,

But grant is the only one of us
who's actually mined on tomcod,

So we kind of rely on him
to explain the ground to us.

You know, you're
at the advantage here,

Because neither jeff or I

Have ever mined out
on this lease.

So we're completely
unfamiliar with, you know,

What good ground and what
gold-rich material looks like

Out here, so you're the expert.

Emily: Tons of pressure
on grant today.

Grant's been a friend of mine
for a long time,

And we worked together
in the past quite a bit.

He's a great mechanic,
great engineer, welder,

Super skilled dude.

We just have to really
keep on him

To do a thorough search
of this area,

Figuring out whether we're gonna
make any money.

Well, dude [bleep]
crush it down there.

Get us some gold.

We need it, man.

All right, boss.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

All right. Poke away, brother.

Give me a minute.

♪♪

How's your suction?

It's really good.

How's the material look
coming over the box?

♪♪

Yeah, the box is running
pretty good.

♪♪

So, it's super critical that
we had these coordinates

From shawn
so we can make tomcod pay,

Because even though
it's a rich lease,

The gold's not everywhere.

I mean, if it were everywhere,

Everybody would be up here
doing it.

So got to be selective
about the ground that you work.

And hopefully,
shawn put us on some gold.

♪♪

Oh, fool's gold.
How appropriate.

♪♪

Let's just keep going.

[ wind blowing ]

Narrator: Coming up...

Been down so long, get rid of
some of this nitrogen.

Maybe it's time to come up.

[ wind blowing ]

♪♪

How are things going?

Everything feels good.

Heat's good, air's good.

♪♪

Good bend.
We just need some gold now.

Narrator: Well into her team's
first full dive of the season,

Emily riedel is desperate
to finally strike gold

On the tomcod claim,

But so far
they've come up empty.

♪♪

How's it looking, bro?

I'm looking for some change
in the dirt

That could mean something.

♪♪

I can't see any changes for
as far as I can see.

♪♪

Sometimes it doesn't make
any sense at all where gold is.

♪♪

Grant spent most of
his diving career out on tomcod,

So he's familiar with ground
and what pays.

But he's leaving
no stone unturned, basically.

So if he's not finding
any signs of gold,

It's not a good thing.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Seems like shawn's coordinates
aren't gonna pay us.

♪♪

♪♪

Coordinates from mr. Gold

Actually didn't have
a whole lot of gold on them,

And it ended up wasting
a lot of our time.

Bottom line, it's getting late
in the season,

And we don't have anything
to show for what we've done.

What you guys think
about the ground

That we're on right here?

Grant: I don't like it.

Short mining season,

And this is obviously
not gonna pay any bills.

Emily: Mining bad ground
is never a good idea.

You really just have to hit
hot streaks

In order to make any money.

It's too much of a pain
in the a*s and moving sucks,

But you can't stay here
and work bad ground,

Especially what it sounds like

Is that there's just
no gold here.

♪♪

We had coordinates
from shawn on tomcod,

But we didn't find gold,
so we need some other options.

We've got to regroup
and come up with another plan.

But right now, I have no idea
what that's gonna look like.

We got to go back to
the drawing board,

Figure out
where we want to go next.

We'll find someplace that pays.

♪♪

Narrator: 15 miles east...

♪♪

Kris: Are you okay?
Is everything good?

Yeah, it's good.

Whoo-hoo!

When you get to this level
where you just look back,

And it looks like you
just cleared out a wasteland?

That's what I want you to say.

It's like, "wow, I can't believe
I just moved that much ground."

[ chuckles ]

Narrator: Kris kelly's protege,
shaunna echohawk,

Is attempting her first full
ice dive, and she's crushing it.

It looks really good.
I'm on the gold.

That's great news.

♪♪

Large rock going
through the sluice box.

You're doing a great job.

This is shaunna's second dive.

I'm already starting
to see signs of improvement.

She's staying longer.
She's getting more gold.

She's starting to get
a feel for this.

I think she's gonna do this.

Well, you've been
breathing pretty hard,

I can tell you're getting tired.

Come on up...

I hate it when people
are excited to end their day.

She should be fighting me...
"no, don't take me up,

I can do better."

♪♪

Come on. You can do it.

Don't worry, we'll get a ladder
one day, probably next year.

♪♪

How are you doing?

Tired. I bet.

At least you made it.

So I'll tell you
you did a great job,

You know, you did
a really good job.

I think we got a sweater
for you today.

Oh, my gosh.

Andy: Here's your shirt.
[ giggles ]

I finally earned my keep.

Kris: Shaunna delivered.

With andy being out,

She had big shoes and
the biggest wet suit in nome

To fill.

Shaunna went down there
and worked for hours

And moved a lot of material.

I'm very happy with her.

They gave me a crew sweatshirt.

I'm really proud of myself.

I stuck it out,

And I can finally say
I'm a gold diver.

♪♪

So right now,
shaunna gets a gold star,

But the rest of the team,
I'm not so sure right now.

We're wrapping it up
for the day.

We got some gold.

Andy fell short.

At least shaunna's picked up
his dive time.

We'll clean this box out.

Brad: Let's go, let's go.

♪♪

Narrator: Coming up...

Narrator: And later...

Brad: Is that shaunna
getting all that gold?

Oh, please.

♪♪

Oh-oh.

♪♪

Hello and welcome
to another installment

Of "secrets underneath the ice."

♪♪

Today, we're talking about
diving underneath the ice.

The only way to get into
the ocean through the ice

Is cut through it.

Cutting an ice hole sucks.

It's probably the worst part
about ice mining.

[ beep ]
so there's two basic ways

To cut through the ice...

An auger

And a chainsaw.

[ chainsaw revs ]

Using an auger
is probably the strenuous way,

But it's definitely the safest.

Okay. Look here...

You're standing on a lake.

[ beep ]
you're standing on the ocean,

And it's frozen.

Do you really want to be
building an 8-foot chainsaw

When you can slip at any time
and cut somebody's leg off?

Think about that.

So, you got
right here is the auger.

Audience: Ohh.

Let me tell you what,
when you turn this thing on,

You get it working,
it's pretty self-explanatory.

You basically find the ice
where it's thinnest.

We corkscrew through it

And then we do that 20 or 30
times making a square,

And that's how
we have a dive hole.

[ cheers and applause ]

Okay. Look, to be honest
with you, diving under the ice

Is a lot simpler
than you think about it.

Just jump in.

Rule number one is don't die.

You know, don't let
your heart beat out of control.

Don't look up.

Don't think
about getting caught.

Don't think about
anything happening.

You just got to be like me...
Too dumb to think about it.

You know, someone has to almost
die to learn these tricks.

So if you're smart,
you learn from me

And don't k*ll yourself
along the way.

As long as you don't think about

The 500,000 different ways
you can die

While you're underneath there,
you are set.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
As day falls to night...

♪♪

Narrator: ...One miner is still
under the ice.

[ groans ]

♪♪

Oh.

Joe: [ laughs ]

Narrator: Shawn pomrenke is deep

Into his attempted
marathon dive.

♪♪

Oh. [ laughs ]

Oh.

Yep. Maybe it's time to come up.

♪♪

♪♪

I think I got
a couple more hours in me.

That's the mr. Gold
we've been hearing about.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It's been about five hours,

You still hanging strong
down there, shawn?

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

A good seven and a half hours.

♪♪

Yeah. [ laughs ]

♪♪

I'm coming up.

I'm coming up.

♪♪

Been down so long, trying to get
rid of some of this nitrogen.

It's a beautiful view.

♪♪

Yeah, it's impressive
for anybody...

Seven and a half hours.

Got to be like a prune
down there,

A golden prune.

♪♪

Good dive, shawn.

Man: Seven and a half hours.
Whoo!

[ laughs ]

Shawn: This old man still got
it, feel like I'm 22 again.

Well, maybe 23.

We made huge progress
towards my goal.

It makes me realize
why I love diving so much,

Because it's not easy
and not everybody can do it.

I could have kept going.

We ran all the ground.
There's no more ground left, so.

[ thudding ]

♪♪

Time to move.

♪♪

Gonna get frostbite out here.

Whew.

♪♪

Narrator: Coming up...

After a
seven and a half-hour dive,

It's pretty tough
on this old guy.

You know what?

No risk, no reward.

♪♪

Shawn: Think I was 18 years old,

We started with little


I'd come out
was diving right back here

And go prospecting
and find gold.

♪♪

Well, I had
no diving experience at all.

Air compressor ran out of gas.

♪♪

And I didn't think, "oh,
just drop the weight belt."

Well, I was swimming
with 45 pounds of lead

Around my waist.

And I'd make it to the dredge,

And then I'd fall back down
to the bottom.

And I'd jump up
and swim and swim and swim

And reach for the dredge
and missed it again.

And the third time,
I made it to the top,

And I got two fingers
on the dredge to pull myself up.

I think that was the first time
I almost died in the bering sea.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In nome...

♪♪

Kris: I think this clean out's
gonna go pretty good.

Shaunna's working out,
she's getting more hours

Underneath the water.

Narrator:
Despite being one diver short

Of their three-person relay,

The kellys clean the fruits
of their labor.

♪♪

We all know what
we have to do right now.

We just can't stop.

Andy, no more leaving your stuff
home to cost this time.

Brad: Is that shaunna getting
all that gold?

Oh, please. It might be.

This is a lot heavier this time,

I can feel it.

Good. Let's see what it is.

♪♪

Kris: We're already at 3...

...And 4, 5...

...And 6, 7.


Oh [bleep] 9 ounces.

♪♪

Ohh. 10. Barely over 10.

We barely... yee-haw. Barely.

Hey, that's still 10, bro.

That's 10 for us.

Oh, yeah.

Narrator: 10.13 ounces
is worth over $16,000.

The kellys' best haul so far.

Kris:
So, once again, my plan worked.

Thank god we had shaunna, or
we would have been screwed.

It's like I'm trying to guide
these people to the holy land

While my dad and brother
are screaming behind me.

Just like dad. [indistinct]

Oh, man, at the rate
that things are going,

If we keep doing 10 ounces
of cleanup the whole way,

We're gonna get
way past 50 ounces.

And from now on,
never leave your thermals again.

♪♪

Narrator: Across town...

♪♪

Emily: It's definitely been
a rough go of it.

You know, I'm not expecting a
whole lot of gold this cleanup,

But anything helps,

And maybe we did better
than we thought.

That's what we always hope for.

Narrator: After a frustrating
day, emily riedel's hoping

For a little something
to put in her pocket

Before moving on
from the tomcod claim.

♪♪

So far, ice mining has been
a complete money pit once again.

Yeah, I was kind of hoping
that after all these years,

I would actually have a
successful ice mining season,

But it's looking like
all the other ice mining seasons

Right now.

♪♪

Doesn't look like much fellas,
but let's see how we did.

♪♪

Oh, ouch.

♪♪



♪♪

Narrator: 1.8 ounces
is worth about $2,800,

Barely enough to cover expenses,

Let alone prepare a new fleet
for summer.

That's no bueno.

Yeah, time is running out,
we moved to tomcod

And didn't find much.

And season's
kind of coming to a close here.

I've got to come up
with another option here.

I mean, look,
as long as my crew is with me,

And we've got our gear,
we're not gonna quit.

We agree, then,
get the hell out of tomcod?

- Yeah.
- Yeah, we're done.

So we need to go,

And we need to get
our ounce count higher,

'cause 60's a long way off,

But there's other options.

Let's get back out there, guys.

♪♪

Narrator: 2 miles north...

♪♪

I pulled a marathon dive, almost
eight hours on the bottom,

A little banged up here
and there,

Pretty tough on this old guy.

Narrator: Shawn pomrenke's
hoping that a marathon session

On the sea floor

Has led to his biggest haul
of the season.

You know what?
No risk, no reward.

Alls that matters is how much
gold you put in the box.

♪♪

Kind of feeling like
a big raisin right now,

But it's all gonna be worth it.

This winter is no joke,

But these are the ways
I'm gonna have to push myself

If I want to secure the tomcod.

My future depends on it.

See what we got here.

♪♪





Ooh, boy. We're gonna hit 60.

♪♪

Ooh-wee. [ pot clatters ]



That's a damn good
cleanup there, boys.

Narrator: 64.95 ounces,

That's over $100,000...

Ooh.

Narrator:
...And easily mr. Gold's

Biggest tally this winter.

That's double our last cleanup,
double our last two cleanups.

I can smell the down payment.
Ooh.

Shawn: Oh. Who's this?

Oh, sir.

Hello.

This is my boy, luke.

Wow. That's a lot of gold.

That is a lot of gold...


Of all dad's hard work.

Pretty soon you're gonna
have to take over

For me,

Like next year.

And I'm gonna bag up this gold.

Okay.

We'll go get something to eat.

Seven and a half hours,
I'm feeling it.

That was tough,

But we're not gonna
make any gold here.

It's time to get back to diving.

♪♪

Narrator: Mr. Gold continues
his onslaught.

While emily is still stuck
at the starting line.

♪♪

Next time
on "bering sea gold"...

But the only problem
is the further out we go,

The thinner the ice gets.

Diver down!

We got a 5-foot rock jam.

Any time somebody comes
to pay royalties,

You're counting your ounces.

A little bit of hard
work pays off.

How'd it go for you?

A little bit brittle.

What the [bleep] is
everyone's problem today?

Calm down, dude.

Do one hole right
the first time,

Then go to the next hole.

Settle down
or I'm gonna kick you in the...

I don't care, get it
through that [bleep] hole

The right way.

Good. Go.
You're a waste of time anyways.

Well, I had enough
of your [bleep]

♪♪