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Gold Rush Viking Voyage: Spoilers, Recaps, And Commentary

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 06:01 PST, Mar 4, 2017

Gold Rush: Viking Voyage (Season 7, Episode 21) aired on Friday, March 3, and if you missed it, or if you just enjoy reading spoilers and commentary, the Inquisitr has got you covered.

For those not familiar with the show, Gold Rush follows teams of miners searching for gold in the remote, inhospitable Yukon Territory in Canada, as well as other locations. For some of the miners, lacking jobs at home, the stakes are unimaginably high.

Season 7 has continued the tradition of following the various teams of miners as they try new locations, new techniques, and other methods of searching for gold. Weather problems, mechanical problems, labor problems (especially, failing to find enough gold to cover the cost of paying the teams’ laborers), and other issues have beset the miners, and as the season comes to a close and winter sets in, the producers are amping up the drama.

One such miner, Tony Beets, is brash, unfiltered, and borderline reckless.

As he’s done all season, Tony continues to take big risks in the hope of big rewards. And in “Viking Voyage” (the word “Viking” in this case refers to Tony, according to TV Ruckus), Tony takes yet another huge risk. With winter setting in and his barge at risk of being iced in, Tony ignored the ice buildup on his boat to ferry his equipment to the site of a second dredge. The move was so risky that even his captain called it “risky,” but it paid off big. As it turns out, dredging is a much less expensive way of producing gold, so even though other miners found more gold, they spent so much getting it that their actual profit isn’t what they’d hoped it would be. Tony, on the other hand, hit the jackpot.

“It gives Tony even more reason to crow and pronounce himself a genius for bucking tradition and switching from a washplant to the dredge. He spent a fortune on that gamble and came out the clear winner.”

Meanwhile, over in Colorado, miner Todd Hoffman is looking at his own potential gamble. They believe they’re closing in on a potential thousand ounces of gold – enough to pay their employees. Todd, however, has set his sights on the top of a mountain. The owner of the claim site – which sits at an elevation of 13,000 feet – allowed Todd and his team to run a small amount of dirt to see if the site had any promise.

Fortunately for Todd and his team, their test run produced some gold nuggets – enough to confirm (for Todd, anyway), that their new site has promise. Unfortunately for Todd, both the high elevation and Todd’s weight worked against him.

“Sure the sample came up big, but the working conditions are hellacious. Todd almost keeled over, needing oxygen to do nothing more than work the gear shift on the loader. Then again the guy is in poor shape, noting that he had to squeeze into the loader’s cab.”

Whether or not Todd is willing to risk his health and his team to spend months mining at high elevation remains to be seen.

As Season 7 enters its final few episodes of the season, it appears that at least two of the teams’ efforts are finally paying off.

New episodes of Gold Rush air on Fridays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on The Discovery Channel.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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