On tonight’s Gold Rush: White Water, life and death hang in the balance. We have a front row seat to a dangerous work day for Dakota Fred Hurt’s crew, including his son Dustin Hurt and Rich Webster, a greenhorn who is new to this season.
The fear of being crushed to death underwater is a daily event for Dakota Fred Hurt’s crew, who are mining in the rapidly moving McKinley Creek.
In our exclusive clip, the underwater footage brings home the danger as Dustin and Rich are monitored from above as they descend down a steep vertical chasm — the boulders appearing to be not well anchored.
In his diving gear and in the water, Dustin Hurt says: “It is so f****** steep, this is the deepest I have ever dredged.”
Underwater with him is Rich, who answers Dustin’s remarks: “It is f****** deep, steep, dark and…”
Dustin interrupts him and concurs: “This is a little f****** crazy dude.”
In the clip, Fred is shown looking concerned as he listens to their back and forth conversation. Dustin says: “It is just f****** vertical walls all around us.”
Fred looks worried.
Still underwater, Dustin says: “It is not ever a good idea to have vertical walls in a 360-degree angle around you.”
Rich seems to not grasp how dangerous it truly is and in a goofy voice says: “Scary!”
Up above, the mining pumps and sluices appear to be rocking, Then the guys hear something worrisome.
“Whoa, f*** diver up!” Fred is yelling at the above water crew as the guys are scrambling to bring up the divers.
“Paul is he okay?” asks Dakota Fred who has been monitoring the comms like a hawk.
Emerging from the water, Rich and Dustin look a bit shell shocked. Once settled down, Dustin recalls the chain of events.
Dustin says: “What the hell was that?” He adds: “Something big went down…because I could feel it in my chest and everything.”
The guys are very happy to be above the water line and out of the underwater ravine.
Elaborating on the emergency they just faced, Dustin says: “I was cutting the shaft right here all the way into this wall when all of a sudden this water… it was an obvious landslide. It sounded like a rumbling train coming through. Underwater you don’t just hear it, you feel it, it smashes your chest in…big boulders fell from somewhere and it just went pitch back.”
The Dakota boys hail from the reality series Gold Rush — also on Discovery.
Dakota Fred and his son Dustin are joined by a crack team of experienced and intrepid divers, mountaineers and mechanics. Together they mine the hard to reach white water rapids of McKinley Creek in Alaska, using a suction dredge to pull out pay dirt from crevices long bathed in these rapid currents, searching for gold.
Daily they face death by drowning or being crushed to death underwater, of being attacked by bears and wolves, as well as extreme temperatures and hypothermia.
Make sure to tune in tonight to see what the reasoning was to put Dustin and Rich’s lives on the line and if any gold came from their efforts underwater.
Gold Rush: White Water airs Friday at 10 pm on Discovery.