When was the last time you heard someone say their profession was mining for gold? It’s been awhile since the gold rush but America’s Toughest Jobs is bringing it back! The crew remained in Alaska this week, returning to Anchorage for their mining ordeal. With their bosses in tow the 11 remaining workers hiked to gold mining central: the creek. At the job site the crew was taught how to both pan for gold as well as drudge. Their first day was all about panning the good old fashioned way.

For the first three or so hours nobody was hitting any gold. The bosses said they weren’t necessarily looking at how much gold they found but how well they worked individually and as a team. After a few hours of no luck Sandy, once again, stepped up the game by finding a chunk! Rick and Michaela followed shortly there after and everyone was on the gold rush bandwagon. Although everyone found SOME gold, others were just not getting it. The boss couldn’t believe how some of the crew, especially Ben and Phil, were just sloshing the pans around. They felt after a full day of panning they should have got the hang of things but apparently its harder than it looks. Phil, who was lacking in the gold department, got knocked down another knock by actually getting knocked down. While crossing the creek (a big no no) Phil took a tumble and could have been washed away in the frigid water. Luckily only his bucket got washed away and he came out with only  a cold.

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Last week America’s Toughest Jobs took on the seas of Deadliest Catch and this week another Discovery Channel favorite is visited: Ice Road Truckers. The twelve remaining contestants remained in Alaska for the task and after getting their permits to drive 18 wheelers the challenge was off. With only six big rigs for the job, the twelve were split into pairs with two in each truck. One would drive 250 miles to Anchorage Alaska while the other would take over the remaining 250 miles the next day.

With the first six on the road half had problems. Rommel started it off early by stalling out as the trucks pulled onto the road and continued that streak while going up one of the many Alaskan hills. Bryce also had some trouble on the hill but his problems were going down. Since the hills are so steep, breaking wasn’t an option so the truckers had to downshift to make the decent. With over 10 gears to choose from, some of the drivers were finding it difficult to pull off these shifts, one of them being Bryce. Chris had the hardest drive though, stalling not once but several times on two different hills. His driving was so dangerous that his supervisor pulled him from the drivers seat and allowed his partner Phil to take over for the rest of the drive. Phil, along with Rie and Eric, did great at the drivers seat and showed how ice road trucking should be done.

After a nights sleep, which happened to be in the bright Alaska night, the next six drivers were ready to take the reamining 250 miles which were much worse then the first. The six driving this time faced a blizzard, unpaved roads and several avalanche warnings. About a quarter way through the drive the cast pulled up to a newly crashed truck and it made them all think just how dangerous their “job” was. It caused little paranoia though as most of the second round drivers did well. Sandy once again shined as she proved it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman doing the job and Phil once again showed his success at the wheel. The only one with problems was Amy, once again. She was horrible at crab fishing and it was obvious she wouldn’t fair well here. Although she did well pre-hills, she almost killed Rie and herself by not putting the truck in gear doing down a steep and curvy hill. Her supervisor almost pulled her from the seat but luckily she got the truck in gear last minute. Chris also had a second chance to prove himself to his supervisor but after sleeping most of the way while Phil was driving he learned very little. With his big mouth open, Chris drove well his second time but berrated his supervisor in “his truck” which sent Chris packing. His supervisor was so heated from the argument that he kicked him out of the truck all together, forcing him to drive to the finish point with the boss and Josh, the host.

When it came time to name the bottom four Josh asked the truckers who they thought should be in there. It was kind of pointless to do so though, if you ask me, since they only got to see how their partner drove. After asking Rie who should be in the bottom four, she chose her partner Amy since that’s the only person she could evaluate. Amy didn’t take it too kindly though and when the weakest four were announced, Rie leaned in for a hug but Amy wasn’t having it. She couldn’t deal with Rie’s flip flop of friendship and “call out” but hey the producers basically asked for it. Since I got ahead of myself let’s just say the bottom four now. Rommel, Bryce, Amy and obviously Chris were chosen to compete to stay in the game. What they had to do was back one of the trucks up to gate without hitting any cones. They then had to remove the hydraulics, pull out the pin connecting the truck to the freight and then pull the truck through the finish line. The slowest to do so would go home and would not be able to compete in the next job.

Bryce started things off but not so well. It took him two tries to back the truck up and after hitting a cone his time went up by a minute. In the end he did finish though and Rommel was up next. Rommel did well, by not hitting any cones and perfectly lining up his truck he beat Bryce’s time which ensured he would stay in the game. Crazy Chris followed Rommel and showed his lack of trucking skills once again. After taking several attempts to get the truck lined up with the gate and hitting two cones, Chris finally finished with a time well over Bryce’s, meaning it was up to Amy to either send herself home or send Chris home. With a stellar move into the gate, Amy was sure to do well but her bad luck continued as she couldn’t pull the pin out, disconnected the freight car. Her lack of strength showed once again and with her time going past Chris’, Amy was sent packing and told she would not be moving on to the next job.

Next week its gold mining time! It doesn’t seem THAT hard but hey, I guess if you get swept away in a river like one contestant is rumored it, it just might be the toughest one yet!

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I’ve been getting a lot of comments about how to apply for the Alaska Experiment on the Discovery Channel. It is now being reported that a season two of the show will take place and applications will be taken online in the coming weeks. I’ll bring you more details as I find them out and exactly how you can apply if you loved the first season of the show. For now you can catch up on the first season by viewing the episodes online at http://video.discovery.com/.

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You may not realize this but Discovery Channel has amazing reality tv programming. Most of the shows don’t seem like “reality” when watching them as they aren’t competitive in nature but they do fall into the reality realm. The newest one called The Alaska Experiment harkens back to the early Survivor days when the show mostly focused on the survival aspect of the contestants. In ‘Experiment’ four groups of people are placed in four separate remote locations of Alaska. They are forced to fend for themselves, gather their own food, cut their own fire wood and survive. The show has no competition but rather tests each of the groups by seeing how long they can live off of the rough and sometimes deadly Alaskan land. The groups live in their “homes” for at least three months and are monitored daily by the crew to ensure all of safe to remain in the experiment. The homes they live in range from a canvas tent to an abandoned cabin. Each team uses different strategies to survivor and the ‘experiment’ is watch very closely to ensure the teams have the most basic tools and supplies possible to live in Alaska. The first show I watched yesterday has truly got me hooked as I’ve been wanting that survival aspect of Survivor to return. The Alaska Experiment just might be the closest thing. New episodes air every Tuesday night at 10pm while reruns are run often. To find out when the show will air for you click here.

The learn more about Discovery Channel’s Alaska Experiment go here.

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