Sentence:  He joins Fagre and Erich at the edge of the rock rib where it meets the ice and snow. They uncoil the rope and tie bowlines to clip into their harnesses. The two men look to Fagre for instructions. Dan Fagre just points, unusual for a loquacious man. Ahead, about two hundred yards into the glacier, toward the headwall, is a <WSD>bald spot</WSD>. The snow has melted away or been scoured by the wind to reveal a stretch of disturbed ice and crevasses about the size of a football field. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An area where a covering layer is absent; for example, a place where there is a break in the forest covering an area, or where snow has melted.