no they arent always shadowed, but normally they are by default, you can find out real quick just by looking at /etc/passwd, if it looks like gibberish its been shadowed and encrypted, ya you can crack it.If your gonna do that, use johntheripper, its a decent cracking program, uses a dictionary too if needed, that speeds things up, your still looking at a few weeks of CPU time.
oh ya, check on open discussion forum, I added a link and a sample of that ascii art library for you