Dustin Hurt & Crew Embark on Most Dangerous Season Ever

[Warning: The below contains spoilers for Gold Rush Season 8 Premiere.]

Coming off the monster discovery of a $70,000 nugget, Dustin Hurt is going all in for Season 8 of Gold Rush: White Water. He has had his share of success over the last 14 years, but is still in search for the big score. During the April 25 premiere on Discovery Channel, he laid out his plan to unearth a possible jackpot hidden in remote Alaskan waterfalls, which is where that six-ounce nugget was found. 

The adventure 30 miles from Haines to Nugget Creek would mean risking life and limb for a big pay day. He met up with his team made up of Carlos Minor, James Hamm and bearded brothers Wes and Paul Richardson to see if they were on board for this dangerous endeavor. He made no bones about the fact he couldn’t guarantee their safety. Hamm had some concerns as did Minor, an army veteran and family man. Despite all their understandable worries, the crew decided to sign on for the mission. 

And so they begin the first run up river for the most dangerous white water mining they’ve ever done. The group worked to set up a remote camp 13 miles upstream to Nugget Creek. It didn’t take long for them to spot a black bear near their site. A gun is fired to attempt to scare it away, but who knows how many others were around looking for food. They don’t find the waterfall that Hurt and Paul initially discovered. Instead it was 80 feet of snow and ice, a frozen barrier between them and the gold. This mean Hurt had to find another viable site or it was game over. Luckily, he worked through a Plan B. Hurt joined Minor and Hamm to check out another area while enlisting the brothers to work on getting the dredge working properly. 

Medium shot of James Hamm holding a gold pan whilst gazing off into the distance. (Discovery Channel)

The three do land on a new place they dub “The Wall,” a dive site still covered with 20 feet of snow. However, with the right tools, they could be mining in a week. Minor was excited to try a less conventional way of melting down the white stuff like a flame thrower. Meanwhile, Wes has the idea to harvest parts from the three broken dredges to create a double dredge with two sluices and separate heating and suction systems. They could then have two divers operating at the same time and dredging, which meant double the gold. 

With the flamethrower not doing the job that well, they resort to a more tried and tested method, pumping out creek water to melt the snow and clear the snow at The Wall. The crew used a water pump and pressure washer over two days and made  good progress. Hamm does some initial panning and found some gold pieces. They readied the space for the dredge. Before they can move the dredge, Hamm went for a supply run to the Devil’s Elbow, which has its own dangers. Hurt was impatient waiting on the dredge. Things get heated with concerns the dredge might also be too heavy. Despite an initial scary party in the water, the old truck and Hamm made it through. 

Then it became a race against the weather with rain threatening to wash out the only way back. Next came the backbreaking work of bringing in more than 80-feet of boards and having to manage to anchor them 20 feet above to The Wall for a walkway. There were more than 2,500 dredge components around the narrow boardwalk above the creek. Dustin slipped at one point, feeling light-headed from the job at hand. 

The crew completed 50 trips to bring in all the pieces. It took two weeks, but the Deuce Sluice, was ready to go, but would it float? She does! They maneuvered it into place using the skyline The new dredge was still almost twice the weight of their past one. The simple solution  to get it in the right spot was double the pulleys to cut the force to lift it by half. Hurt got injured and thought he broke something in his hand. Not good when you’re just starting the season. We’ll see how this plays out. 

Gold Rush: White Water, Fridays, 8/7c, Discovery Channel