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‘Gold Rush’ Update: ‘A Roller Coaster Ride’ As the Hoffman Crew Leave Alaska For Oregon In Search Of Gold

By Georgia Makitalo
Published on: 08:53 PST, Oct 14, 2016

The start of the highly anticipated Season 7 of Gold Rush is about to start. On October 14, the season will kick off with a two-hour premiere that Dave Turin describes as a “roller coaster ride.” In this bittersweet year, the Hoffman crew departed the gold-rich lands of the Yukon for even more ounces of the precious metal in eastern Oregon, their home state. Fans have been wondering if this move paid off for the Hoffman crew. What juicy clues does Turin give about the new season, and how much gold has the crew dug up?

Fans of Gold Rush and the Hoffman crew have been riding a roller coaster for years. From the first season, their team had some of the biggest disagreements over how they were mining and using the equipment, which led to a few minors leaving the camp in a huff. They also went to mine in South America for a disastrous season.

The Inquisitr previously reported that the Gold Rush teaser shows Todd Hoffman admitting that they have lost “several hundred thousand dollars” due to damaged equipment. Yet, Dave Turin insists that this year, the struggles are not mechanical, but personal. Perhaps it is because, in Season 7, they are mining at High Bar Mine, just outside of Pine Creek, Oregon.

Turin, one of the leaders on the Hoffman crew, spoke to Oregon Live about the team and the new season.

“The thing that’s different this year is we got a lot more personal. In the past, it’s been a lot more about work, and big machines, but this year, you’re going to see us as individuals struggle with what every person struggles with. You’re going to see me have issues with the people I work with, and hopefully, I can be a good example. We’re not perfect men, we have our issues, and our problems, but hopefully, we’re going to show how real men work through those things.”

Could some of the struggles have to do with Dave’s relationship with Todd? Sounds like there were no issues with Hoffman, but instead, they bonded together and worked on healing the team so that they could make their dream of striking gold happen!

“Todd and I are good friends… We’ve worked through a lot of issues through the years. We’ve remained friends. We’ve had our disagreements, but we’ve worked with each other enough to know not to go too far on certain things. So we have this mutual respect. We had to learn to lean on each other during these difficult times. We had to try and put our team back together, and rely on each other.”

One of the unexpected obstacles the crew faced was that they were not always together. On one hand, family life benefited because they were able to work in Oregon. This meant that Dave, for example, just needed to drive six hours each way to go home on the weekends. Yet, when the crew stayed up in the Yukon, they were gone half of the year without ever going home. This forced closeness in the remote Yukon meant that the Hoffman crew created a solid bond with each other.

This season, because they were no longer in the Yukon, everyone got their own housing or lived in rental homes or at the local RV park. Because they were not sharing a meal together or having that extra time to sort out issues, that off-work bonding was missing, as the golden opportunity to communicate was lost. Sounds like the ingredients for some typical crazy Hoffman drama!

“We were in Baker City, that’s one of the reasons we were so excited about the season,” Turin explained. “[W]e’re gone six months out of the year, which is very difficult. We were all so excited to be back in Oregon. But we weren’t eating our meals together, we weren’t living in close proximity. We had some people living in rental homes, some in an RV park. We didn’t have that time to air out our differences.”

Dave Turin realizes that fans watch the show for a variety of reasons. Some want to see a modern-day gold rush. Many people hope Jack Hoffman’s dream of golden riches will happen. Others have enjoyed watching the coming-of-age story of Parker Schnabel. Parker’s relationship with his now-late grandfather, John Schnabel, has been popular with fans of the show.

“The team is together, and we worked through some things. That’s part of the allure of the show. People have grown to identify with us, some with me, some with Todd, some with Jack, some with Parker, some with Parker’s granddad.”

In Season 7, John Schnabel will be remembered in this bittersweet year. No longer able to consult with his beloved grandfather, Parker has to figure it all out alone in Season 7. Schnabel has invested a lot of money in new equipment and upgrading his operation. In addition, Parker has an Australian girlfriend, Ashley Yule, that will be working alongside him. Could she become his new confidante? This is certainly the ingredients for some emotional and sentimental drama for the young miner.

Are you excited for the new season of Gold Rush? How many ounces of gold do you think the Hoffman clan is going to find in Oregon?

[Featured Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]

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