My girlfriend had a chance of meeting Alex at some climbing/caving school - while he was just a prodigy child, he was still the very best if not THE BEST in the world at that point, but he didn't have any "achievements" in free soloing.
She said he was really down to Earth guy and a bit lost in his world, but a great guy.
There was some competition climbing the rock with ropes, 3 fastest climbers took about 30 minutes with a difference in their time about half a minute. Alex, showed up at the end, and asked if he can try...
Guess what - He climbed that rock with only chalk in his hand in 5 minutes. The winners were devasted. :)

Anyways, great write up.
And John was really one of a kind!