Mining for gold is dangerous. Mining for gold at the bottom of a whitewater rapid river is just plain stupid. Meet the geniuses of Discovery’s “Gold Rush” spinoff, “Gold Rush: White Water.”
TheWrap‘s got an exclusive sneak peek at Friday’s series premiere above. In our preview video, Dakota Fred and his son Dustin return to Alaska’s McKinley Creek, determined to make a fortune at any cost.
Based on the quote we pulled for our sub-headline, it’s pretty obvious that someone is going to drown on tonight’s debut. (A reality TV show wouldn’t edit footage for the dramatic, would it?)
On “White Water,” the Dakota Boys put together a team of intrepid divers, mountaineers and bush mechanics to go where no miner has ever managed to explore — the depths of freezing plunge pools in whitewater rapids that have only recently become accessible, per Discovery. Nothing will stop these guys — they’ll dive in raging torrents with a six-inch suction dredge where one wrong move could have deadly consequences.
This is gold mining at its most extreme. Accessing the creek each day takes nerves of steel — traversing a death-defying 400-foot canyon on a precarious zip-wire. But that is not the only danger, the series description continued. The guys will face wild animals, extreme temperatures and hypothermia from the freezing water.
But the Dakota boys will need to make a serious return on fellow gold miner Todd Hoffman’s investment — and soon. The pressure is on. But can the Dakota Boys tame the wilderness, strike gold and make it out unscathed?
Watch the video above and see what kind of start they get off to.
“Gold Rush: White Water” is produced for Discovery Channel by Raw Television, where Dimitri Doganis, James Bates and are executive producers and Tim Dalby and Theo Williams are series producers. For Discovery Channel, Matthew Vafiadis is executive producer and Greg Wolf is coordinating producer.
The original “Gold Rush” remains Discovery Channel’s top-rated show.
“Gold Rush: White Water” premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery.