Snowboarder Danny Davis on his near-perfect run

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Not one, or two ... but three double corks.

Snowboarder Danny Davis had a run for the ages on Wednesday afternoon in winning the men’s halfpipe Grand Prix event at Mammoth. (Kelly Clark won the women’s halfpipe, qualifying for the Olympics, which will be her third.)

Race announcers are often given to hyperbole, but Davis’ ride was being called the greatest run in snowboarding history.

No one was arguing.

And his first run wasn’t bad, either.

Shaun White finished second behind Davis and Scott Lago was third.

‘It’ll just help me because I haven’t been landing that run much.’ Davis said. ‘Haven’t been running it or landing it at all. It’s just nice to put it all together.

‘I haven’t landed it in weeks. I’ve been struggling with it. Perfect timing. Exactly.’

The finish area was dotted with signs and tributes to injured snowboarder Kevin Pearce. At the awards’ ceremony, Davis held up a sign, saying: ‘Pearce Be With You.’

Pearce, who suffered a head injury in a training run at Park City, Utah last month, had been in critical condition and remains in intensive care. His status was upgraded to serious later on Wednesday.

Earlier Davis was asked if it had been difficult to get back out there after his close friend’s accident.

‘It was more just difficult to just not have him out there riding with us,’ Davis said. ‘I know he wants us to just get back to our thing. And he’d be pissed if we sat on the couch and we were like, ‘I can’t snowboard anymore. I feel (bad) about it.’ He’d want us out there doing our things.

‘There’s not much you can do when someone is in his position. The only thing you can do is just do what he would want. And he’d want us to ride well.’

And something else.

Davis added, smiling: ‘Mostly I’m really sure he’d want us beat Shaun White. I’m glad we could do that.’

-Lisa Dillman

Reporting From Mammoth Lakes