[MUSIC PLAYING]
I hate helicopters, dude.
You agreed to come out here.
NARRATOR: Gold divers Dustin Hurt and Carlos Murnau
are on a midwinter mission to reach
their isolated McKinley camp, which
lies high in the snow-clad Chilkat Mountains.
Last season--
DUSTIN HURT: That is some good looking gold, man.
NARRATOR: --they struck a rich streak of gold,
earning them a big payday.
Record winter floods bring promise of even more gold.
But if the recent storms and landslides
have damaged their cabins and equipment,
there might not be a season at all.
So we've got to go up and check to see how much
snow is on top of the cabin.
If it's completely smashed, we're screwed,
and we won't be able to mine.
NARRATOR: After a failed attempt to reach
the site on a snowmobile--
DUSTIN HURT: It's not moving.
Oh, you are not going to like this.
That is your drive belt.
NARRATOR: --they have a new plan, snowboard into camp.
They've pulled in a favor to get them as close as possible.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Ah!
Woo hoo!
Woo.
Yeah!
Look at this place.
OK, yeah.
- Yeah! - Oh.
Look at this.
Look at this place.
Look here.
Camp is down there.
You couldn't pick a better route, man.
NARRATOR: Dustin and Carlos have just six hours
to complete their mission before it's too dark to be picked up.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Watch out for holes, trees, underground stumps sticking up.
This powder stuff-- dude, this is a whole new frickin' animal,
bro.
I'll-- I'll go first.
OK, yeah.
I'll follow you, dude.
Come on.
Oh, man.
That's nice.
DUSTIN HURT: How epic is this, man?
Look at this place.
It's beautiful.
Woo hoo.
See if you can get up.
You had a track and everything.
You scared me, man.
NARRATOR: After four hours on and off their boards--
Oh, it's good to be home.
NARRATOR: --Dustin and Carlos finally reach McKinley camp.
Dude, that was the roughest trek ever, man.
DUSTIN HURT: That poor thing is sagging.
It sure is, didn't it?
NARRATOR: But the cabin is completely buried by snow.
I can't tell if it's-- the roof is smashed in or not.
Can you?
No.
NARRATOR: The only way to know if their cabin and equipment
is safe is to get inside.
If we just dig out the doors and if it sloughs off,
it'll pin us in.
So we got to get the snow at least off
from over the top of the doors.
And it's going to get dark soon.
So let's not get caught in subzero degrees.
I am cold.
Start getting there.
DUSTIN HURT: Well, you know where they hide the heat?
Yeah?
DUSTIN HURT: Shovels.
All right, man, let's start digging.
What I was worried about was this whole hillside
falling off the mountain.
And it's still here.
But hopefully, it's not destroyed.
We've got a lot to do, a whole bunch of digging.
It's-- it's a little bit scary.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Oh, man.
You know what?
It's hard, too.
It's iced over.
Oh, man.
This is going to be a long day.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hey, Carlos, this is taking longer than I thought, man.
We need to know the damage before the season starts.
I can't afford to go buy all new gear.
I think we're going to have to stay up here tonight.
There's no way in the world we're going be
able to make it out right now.
DUSTIN HURT: Let's figure out if we can get in.
I just don't want this thing to collapse
on us when we're in there.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You're not gonna give up that easy, are you?
Ah.
Yeah, bring your shovel.
It's iced in on the bottom.
And I can't get that lip to come a-loose.
Can we break that ice away?
Yeah.
DUSTIN HURT: So I get that lip out maybe.
NARRATOR: The wooden security board across the door
is frozen in place.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Yeah.
No, it's real ice, like solid ice.
Let's see.
Come on, ice.
It just won't let go.
So it won't come out this way unless we break it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Push up.
Let me catch my breath.
Can you put your leg right there?
Let's break it.
There it goes.
OK.
[BLEEP] you.
Oh, [BLEEP], dude.
I'm running out of steam, dude.
Whoa. Whoa.
Whoa.
All right, home sweet home.
Come on, baby.
Yes!
Oh my [BLEEP].
That was a lot of work.
Way better than gold at this point, man.
Way better than gold.
It looks like the roof is intact.
I am glad that we took off a bunch of that weight, though.
I'd hate to be in here sleeping, then it crushes me at night.
Ooh.
Come on, baby.
Oh [BLEEP].
This is our main base.
We work here.
If it went down, we just simply wouldn't be able to mine.
We need it for the season to happen.
And what it would end up doing is stopping us for a season.
And I thought it would be smashed by the time I got here.
And I'm glad it wasn't.
You can't pay the bills if you don't get any gold at all.
When I get back home, man, I can't
tell my wife the truth, man.
I'm gonna say, "Hey, man, it was awesome.
You know, we were eating s'mores.
And it was a good time."
We've got some heat!
That's luxury.
I'm ready.
Damn, man, did you snowboard in jeans today?
Well, yeah.
Man, you are just not a snow guy.
Chili mac with beef.
I'm glad we keep that emergency food here.
Mm.
Yum.
It was a successful day, man.
We didn't die.
We got food.
We got heat.
We got shelter.
We're checking out the dive site tomorrow, man.
NARRATOR: One and a half 1,000 miles
north after being forced to spend the night at McKinley
camp--
We gotta get this whole thing to go probably.
NARRATOR: --Dustin and Carlos still
have to remove the remaining five tons of snow
from the cabin roof to ensure it will
survive the rest of the winter.
Oh, it's moving. Come on, Dustin.
You can do it, brother.
There it goes.
Whoa ho!
That was awesome, dude.
All right, Carlos.
You want to call that good?
I can live with this, man.
So from here, what do we do now?
Well, being that we're up here already, how do
you feel about going over and checking out the dive site?
Oh.
Could be a ton more gold everywhere
because of all this rain.
[BLEEP] You know, after Haines, I don't know.
I mean, it destroyed a whole bunch of stuff.
But it also moved a lot of gold.
Let's see if we can get over there at least.
Can we get to the launching point?
Is it buried?
DUSTIN HURT: Carlos, I believe I'm over the top of the deck.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We're at a starting point where
we hook up to the zipline.
It's freaking buried.
NARRATOR: The launch point Dustin and Carlos
use to access the mine site is covered by almost
five feet of condensed snow.
To get across would mean stepping
out onto a shelf made of snow.
Dustin, it's done, dude. Let's go, man.
It's done.
I'm taking slow steps.
It's OK, man.
Just relax.
This snow is a frickin' [BLEEP] dang
unpredictable animal, dude.
It just wants to kill you.
DUSTIN HURT: Yeah, I think you're right, man.
Just to get hooked up, I'd have to be
over the top of a lip in the snow with a 450 foot drop
under it.
This is actually pretty scary.
If this cornice breaks off right here, you'll never find me.
They had what they're calling the 100 year flood this year.
Horrible things happened in town.
But out here, 100 year flood pushed down
gold that's been stuck places.
We'll probably fill the nugget bowl right back up, man.
I would love to get eyes on it to find out what
we're getting into next season.
But it is just too dangerous.
The gold is always going to be there.
Let's go back home, man, and get some of my frigging
coffee and hot soup, dude.
All right.
Maybe in a couple of weeks, I think
that was an awesome adventure.
But right now, man, I'm done.
I'm beat up.
I'm hurting.
I'm cold.
But at least we have our gear.
At least we have a fighting chance for another season.
[MUSIC PLAYING]