INTERVIEW: Rick Ness takes on winter’s challenges on new ‘Gold Rush’ spinoff series
Gold Rush: Winter’s Fortune is the new spinoff series from the successful Gold Rush franchise on Discovery. On the show, which premieres new episodes Fridays at 8 p.m., cameras follow the famed gold miners during the off-season as they prepare for the upcoming opportunities that the spring thaw will bring. They need to move machines, find solid land and battle the wintery elements, all while keeping their costs down and hopes high. Along the way, they also have a lot of fun.
One of the beloved fixtures of the Gold Rush franchise is Rick Ness, known as the “Comeback Kid” on the series. This winter season, he’s after a new wash-plant, drilling system and bulldozer, according to press notes.
Ness recently spoke to Hollywood Soapbox about the new spinoff series. Here’s what he had to say…
On what he’s excited for the audience to see on Gold Rush: Winter’s Promise …
There’s a mixture of things I’m excited for. … Everybody knows what we do during the gold mining season. We’re up here working our tails off, and that’s about all we got time for. In the wintertime, there’s still a lot of work to be done, prep work and stuff, but I think people can see that me and my crew we definitely like to have a lot of fun. There’s a good mix of that in there. It’s basically a big, long road trip with [my crew]. I kind of trick them into thinking we’re having this big, long, fun road trip, which is a lot of fun, but we mix a lot of business in there as far as prepping for this season. We mix a lot of fun in there, too. We do a bunch of racing and things like that. Overall, people are going to get a glimpse of something they haven’t seen before, basically what we’re doing when we’re not mining.
On the differences between the winter and summer workload …
There’s still a lot of work to do. Mining is definitely still front and center. It’s a year-round thing. We can only do it for six months physically, so we’re not moving dirt in the off-season, but, especially for me, there’s a lot of planning and a lot of organizing and a lot of logistics and setup for shipping for the new season and stuff like that. But, yeah, we’re out in the real world doing it, not trapped up here in the woods in the Yukon. For me and my guys in general, we start off in Wisconsin, and we road trip all the way out to Colorado. We stop at places in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona — some of it business, some of it pleasure. The cameras catch it all, and I think people are really going to enjoy it. We all had a lot of fun doing it, and we all got a lot of work done, too.
On being known as the “Comeback Kid” …
I don’t mind that at all, honestly. I would rather be that then the loser, I guess. I did have a bad season where it was damn close, where it could have gone either way. I almost lost everything, and if I had, then I wouldn’t have the chance to be the comeback kid. So I just eeked it out and kind of broke even and had an opportunity to come back, and I feel like I came back in a big way. Although, I have no plans of going back to that, having to come back yet again. … I want to stay a winner here. … I think I do my best work when my back is against the wall, when I am left with no options, and I got nothing in me, except to start throwing punches and fight my way out of something. So, in a way, I am proud of that title because it takes a lot. You’ve got to dig pretty deep to get out of some of these places that I’ve gotten myself into, and I have with the help of my crew and my girlfriend and everything. So, yeah, I don’t mind that title at all. They can use it as long as they want, I guess.
On whether skill or luck is needed for gold mining …
I would say it’s probably more skill than luck and more planning than anything, and I think that’s a big part of Gold Rush: Winter’s Fortune. You’re going to see the kind of planning that goes into it and what it takes to actually have a successful season. … Since I’ve gone out on my own — this is my fourth year on my own — this is the first year that I got to return to the same ground that I ended on last year, and that’s because since I went out on my own, I’ve been trying to find a place, the place where I want to set up shop and really get after it. Last year was really the first year that I found that spot, and that gets rid of a whole lot of unknowns. It’s a target plan in the off-season when you’re going to a new ground that you don’t know much about, and it’s even harder when you’re planning. The whole first part of your season is moving everything, and there’s really no way to get ahead. I’ve always known that, but it’s been necessary to find the right spot. I think we finally found the right spot. We’re here. We’re established. It allowed me to put together a reall good game plan for this year, and it allowed us to hit the ground running. And that’s what I want to do every year from now on. I don’t want to move anymore.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Gold Rush: Winter’s Fortune, featuring Rick Ness, airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on Discovery. The series is also streaming on discovery+. Click here for more information.
