‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 Episode 10 ends on literal cliffhanger as falling rock strikes Dustin
With season 3 nearing its end, the two teams on the Discovery Channel documentary series ‘Gold Rush: White Water’ have some tough choices ahead of them.
While Dustin Hurt and his crew have to find a new spot to look for gold -- their previous spot at “Rainbow’s End” had earned them more than 27 ounces of gold -- the pressure gets real for ‘Dakota’ Fred Hurt, because so far at "Two Fish", their luck has been less than satisfactory. Even at “Thunder Falls”, the 76-year-old and his crew experienced not just equipment malfunctioning, but also near-fatalities.
In episode 10 of ‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3, we saw Dustin, Carlos Minor, Wess Richardson and James Hamm looking for a new prospect. But the unexplored region in McKinley’s Creek already felt daunting to them. Dizzying heights and rapid water currents were sure to make things much more difficult for them compared to what they had to face so far.
Things started on a bad note as James almost fell down the cliff while grappling towards the water. But this would only prove to be a premonition for the near-misses the crew would face this episode. The spot that they found seemed promising. But there was a catch. The water was too rapid. Things could easily turn dangerous in their quest for gold. Calculating that they did not have enough time to set up a safety system, they decided to move on.
At ‘Dakota’ Fred’s camp, morale was already low. In the previous episode, their dredge engine had failed, resulting in Fred almost suffocating underwater. In addition, four months of hard work had so far only earned them around $2,000-worth of gold, staggeringly low compared to Dustin’s nearly $40,000. So, with a bust engine and very little money, the operation at “Thunder Falls” was at a standstill.
After solving the engine crisis -- water had somehow gotten inside the gas tank -- they realized there were other issues as well. The valve that was supposed to regulate pressure was also malfunctioning. This could easily lead to divers suffocating in the event of another engine failure. Luck just wasn’t in ‘Dakota’ Fred’s court this season.
Dustin’s crew finally settled on “McKinley Falls”, a dangerous bit of terrain that had brought lots of gold for miners in the 19th century. Would their luck be the same? It was definitely a gamble.
But if finding a new spot was tough, setting up their thousands of dollars worth equipment was a different kind of hassle. With considerable effort they managed to develop a system to transfer their dredge down, but not without a couple of near-misses that could have destroyed their equipment.
The end of the episode left viewers on a cliffhanger. A sizable piece of rock fell down a considerable height and hit Dustin. Whether or not he was left uninjured or with minimal injury is only something we will learn in episode 11.
‘Gold Rush: White Water’ Season 3 airs on the Discovery Channel every Friday, 10 p.m. ET.
