'Gold Rush: White Water' Recap - 11/05/2021

There are some reality (or unscripted) shows that I continue to watch each week, even though they include gaps of logic and missing context that leave the show more than a bit hard to believe. Take - for instance - the Discovery series Gold Rush: White Water. The father and son team of have been mining the river of what is now beginning its fifth season. And while they have found small amounts of gold each year, the amounts are so small that it seems impossible to believe they can stay in business.

Each season ends with the two teams adding up their gold haul and the conversation ends with an unveiling that is along the lines of "Hey, this is our best season yet! We found $27,000!" An amount that would seem to be not enough to cover the rice and beans bill for a team of five for the summer, much less all of the equipment, gas and other costs of a mining operation. And yet, the next season they're back and apparently not just coming out of another bankruptcy. They are obviously making money somehow, but it doesn't appear to be the result of their search for gold.

The season begins with snow. This winter, Alaska's Chilkat Mountains had its biggest snowfall in over a decade. Which forced Dustin and Carlos to use the only means possible to return to their McKinley Camp: a helicopter. They had to remove 20 tons of snow and ice from their cabin before it was destroyed. They manage to do that and then Dustin buys the only other thing that can get his veteran team back to the camp: a tracked ATV. 

Dustin and his team are hopeful about the new season. At the end of last season, they found their best mining ground ever at a spot on the river they had nicknamed Rockfall Ravine. But mining was stopped after rising waters and the onset of winter led to an accident that nearly killed Dustin. So the hope is that if they can start up at the same spot, their streak might continue. But to get there, the team needs to make an 8-mile trip through the snow to Porcupine Creek, then it's a 2,000-foot climb up a snowy trail to reach their McKinley camp.

But of course, things never go smoothly for the Dakota gang and they have to stop on the trail to clear a giant fallen tree. And manage to bend the blade of a brand-new chainsaw while doing it. They finally make it to Porcupine Creek and decide that even though it's only a couple of hours until dark, they are going to try and drive up the steep trail to camp. If they flip over or get stuck, they would have to wade through five feet of snow to get to safety. But not surprisingly, the team decides to go for it and we know it's going to work out. Because otherwise this would have ended up being a one-hour season premiere/finale.

Two hundred feet from the summit, the ATV gets stuck and Dustin decides to use a winch to pull the machine out of the snow. But the winch rope snaps and the team ends up having to hike the final half a mile up a steep trail as night begins to fall. It's June and there are still about four feet of snow on the ground as they approach McKinley camp, which is not a good sign for the upcoming shortened summer mining season. As they are finally able to get a fire going and warm up in the cabin, the looming question is what the mining site at the chute will look like and whether they will be able to mine at all before all of the snow and ice melts.

The zip line that is strung across a 275-foot ravine is the only way to get to Dustin's McKinley Creek claim. The line is 450 feet in the air and it's amazing that they are willing to cross that on a daily basis. But even more dangerous is the climb down to the chute area. The team travels by rope down a steep slope and then Dustin walks horizontally across a snow-covered slope to a ladder that will take him to the tunnel that is the only access to the chute area. But melting water is flowing under the show as Dustin walks across it, which isn't ideal. 

He makes it to the tunnel and the team follows. But they discover that at some point in the winter, the water from the creek has overflowed to the point where it has deposited rocks into the tunnel. So a tunnel that normally has seven feet of clearance now has less than four. It's even worse when they exit the tunnel and examine the chute area. The near-vertical walls on both sides of the chute are filled with ice sheets and compacted snow. Tons of material that could fall down on divers without warning, making the area too dangerous to mine for quite some time. 

Back in the town of Haines, Alaska, Fred Hurt sips coffee at the local diner. For the past two decades, the 77-year-old has mined the rugged Alaskan wilderness. He's asked Dustin to join him and he tells the cameras that he expects Dustin will be "surprised." When Dustin arrives, Fred asks him what it looks like on the McKinley Creek claim. "It's terrifying," Dustin explains. "If you were trying to make a place to catch humans and kill them, that's what it would look like."

Dustin asks Fred where his crew is at and Fred admits that he isn't going to be running a crew this year. "You're going to be running the entire operation," which is a surprise to Dustin. And Dustin admits that it might be really weird, since he's "never actually done a season without you up here." He tells Dustin that he's not retiring, that he has some other mining opportunities he wants to look at. "They're just not as crazy as McKinley Creek."

Now you could make a pretty good argument that a 77-year-old guy shouldn't still be diving for gold in any scenario. But we already know he's going to be working with Dustin somehow this season, since the teasers at the top of the episode spoiled that decision. So how is it going to happen?

Back at McKinley camp, Dustin returns and informs Carlos, James and Wes that Fred isn't going to be running a crew this season. Once that surprise has sunk in completely, the conversation turns to a new location to mine. Dustin suspects the chute won't be safe for another month. So the question is do they know of an alternate location that they could get to and clean out before moving on to the Chute area? Dustin has in area in mind on his claim called House Rock. But is it any more clear of snow and ice than the Chute site?

It's a quarter-mile hike to the cliffs above House Rock and when they make their way to the water, they all agree that the site looks promising. The massive boulders should be a gold trap and there is at least a theoretical possibility of gold on the site. But they also quickly agree that they are going to need a second dredge to make it worthwhile. The last time the team tackled a site such as this, it took them two years of digging to get down to the gold. A second dredge is a must-have. But with Fred bowing out for the season, they have a second dredge with no crew to operate it. Dustin tells his team that he'll work on finding a second crew, while the three of them work on removing the overhanging rocks and loose material from the walls surrounding the potential dive site. 

Meanwhile, before Dakota Fred can move on to his next mining opportunity, he returns to Porcupine Creek to tie up some loose ends. Fred has brought back last season's hire, Scott Allen, to help him clean up Porcupine Creek. After finding more than 500 ounces of gold on the site, Fred is now legally obligated to fill in the mining area and return the claim to its natural state. While he's doing that, Dustin arrives, hoping to borrow Fred's dredge for the season. After some wrangling, Fred agrees to sell Dustin a dredge for eight ounces of still-to-be-discovered gold. And while he's there, Dustin also hires Scott to be part of his second crew.

Dustin then heads to town so he can get cell service and reaches out to someone he has known for a few years. Kayla Johanson started panning for gold as a teenager in North Carolina. For the past two years, she's run her own gold dredging operation in Southcentral Alaska. She agrees to join his operation and Dustin now has half the crew he needs to run the second dredge.

A few days later at Porcupine Creek, Fred has tied up his loose ends and is ready to head back to the lower 48 and begin a new adventure. Dustin swings by to pick up Scott and as Fred drives off, it's "the end of an era." Well, apparently not really, but the phrase certainly sounds momentous. 

Later at House Rock, Dustin's crew and new recruit Scott are trying to make the site safer for dredging. As they are knocking loose rocks off of the rock face, the narrator mentions in passing that McKinley Creek runs directly over the Denali fault line and that the area is prone to earthquakes. Which is another thing we already knew, since another scene from the episode opening tease was footage of the team scrambling to get out of the way of rocks loosened by an earthquake. 

Newcomer Scott gets his chance to help and does a good job (other than accidentally dropping a rock on Dustin), but they're unable to move the biggest boulder. It's too large to pry out with a crowbar, but loose enough that it remains a danger if it isn't removed. As it turns out, they have some explosive charges they use for target practice. The plan is to place some of the charges under the rock and Dustin will remotely detonate them with his rifle. The plan works, although Dustin ends up having to shoot it three times to set it off.

And that's the somewhat abrupt end to this week's episode. See you next Friday.