INTERVIEW: Emily Riedel trailblazes her way on ‘Bering Sea Gold’

Emily Riedel, the fan favorite of Bering Sea Gold on Discovery Channel, is living a life that’s a little bit different than what she had planned. Rather than pursuing her interests in operatic music, Riedel leads a dredging operation out of Nome, Alaska, on her quest to grab as many ounces of gold as she can find. Perhaps the first woman dredger of her kind, Riedel has become a role model for TV viewers around the United States who watch her weekly adventures on the hit reality series.

Riedel promises plenty of surprises on the new episodes of Bering Sea Gold’s fourth season. “It wouldn’t be gold mining without big surprises,” she said recently during a phone interview. “It’s an unpredictable world up here. This is the fourth season of the show, the fourth season of my dredging career, and I’m constantly being astounded of how things go down up here.”

Riedel said she loves being a role model, but she doesn’t take it lightly. She recognizes the pressures of the job and seems to understand the consequences.

“Taking over my own operation was just a matter, to me, of survival and progress,” she said. “And then the fact [that it] is an inspiration to other women is wonderful. … I hope to represent well and continue to trailblaze and bring more women up here into this field.”

The reality television star admitted that the job can be “dangerously frustrating.”

“I feel like in a regular job the emotional extremes are not as much present in your day-to-day life,” Riedel said. “The emotional extremes in gold dredging are just constant because you’re either wildly ecstatic because everything is working really well, all of your equipment is working well, you’re working well with your crew … or everything is just going wrong. There are times when I’m trying to set anchor and the current is ridiculous and ripping, or I have a diver down, who has been down for three hours that hasn’t seen a speck of gold, and I’m burning diesel, which costs a bloody $6 a gallon in Nome.”

Riedel said she arrived in Nome not knowing anything about gold dredging. She actually prided herself on not understanding engines and welding. However, the personal nature of the job — including being a self-starter, entrepreneur and independent worker — was a natural fit.

“You have to constantly adapt in order to survive up here,” Riedel said. “That is something that everybody kind of has to figure out when they get up here. You come up here, no matter what your experience is in various fields of work, you’re going to be challenged, more than you’ve ever been challenged in your life. You either have to survive and adapt, or go home if you can afford the plane ticket.”

Joining Riedel on Bering Sea Gold is her father, Steve Riedel. They don’t work together, but Emily has sought his advice on dealing with crew members. “At the same time I would never be able to function with him, like I was working with him or under him on an operation; it would be far too chaotic, too all over the place,” she said. “Most of what I’ve learned about dredging has been just like painstaking learning by experience.”

That experience has paid off — sometimes. Riedel said her first as a season as a dredge captain she did “quite well,” totaling more than 100 ounces. However, her first winter season, after investing money in a lot of equipment, “failed miserably.”

“I mean you can never be confident in this business,” she said. “I kind of got a big head on me when my first season was relatively successful. You always have to remain humble and open to things that you don’t know and that you don’t expect because when we had a terrible, 4-ounce season I had to kind of come back to earth quickly.”

Life in Nome can be trying. Riedel ice climbs and skis, but the “miles and miles of rolling hills and tundra” can be barren and desolate. She classified the place as “remote,” but with wild animals like grizzly bears and muskox.

“The rules are less severe here,” she said. “You go to a place like California, and it’s like every time you step outside your door somebody is there to give you some citation to you, and like tell you the way that you walk to your car is not environmentally sustainable or something like that. And then you come to a place like Alaska, and everything is really relaxed because they understand … The spirit of this place is of entrepreneurship. It is the last frontier. You can come up here and create a wonderful life for yourself using your own hands, and that’s the sort of mentality that is somewhat scarce in the lower 48. And it’s still very much alive and well in Alaska.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Bering Sea Gold airs 9 p.m. Fridays on Discovery Channel. Click here for more information.