r -
Second question first - yes, you can bleach the print. However, my experience is that bleaching is not a very subtle solution, and bleaching a dark area in a field of snow is challenging. Because the area is dark against a light field, it's going to take a lot of bleaching to smooth out the tonality. In addition, bleaching the print is not very precise - you are almost certainly going to have to bleach an area larger than the exact flaw, and some of the detail removed will be the texture of the surrounding snow. You can spot back some of that detail, but spotting highlights is tough.
So the first question, how do you spot the negative. My suggestions would be:
1. Don't spot the actual negative. Instead, use a scrap roll of unexposed and undeveloped film - fix it out to retrieve the clear base material. Cut a strip large enough to cover the damaged negative, and carefully tape it to the negative. The orientation of the clear negative is important. If the film you are using has a 'toothy' back, then it's best to give the negatives the same alignment. That is, place the emulsion side of the clear negative against the back of the damaged negative. But if the film has a smooth, non-toothy back, it may be easier to have align the two pieces of film back to back.
2. Use a magenta watercolor dye as your spotting medium. I use Dr. Martin's transparent watercolor dye for this purpose. Put a couple of drops of the dye on a piece of white plastic (I use a throwaway palette from the art store) and let it dry.
3. Tape the negative sandwich to a light box with the emulsion side of the flawed negative against the box. Use a magnifier to see more closely, and a very fine brush. Dampen the brush using distilled water with a small amount of photoflo added, and use it to pick up some of the dried dye, then carefully apply this to the back of the sandwich.
When the dye dries, make a print. You will find that the flaw will be less visible although it probably won't have gone away entirely. The fact that the dye is magenta means that the spotted area of the negative will print with higher contrast - that's a good thing. The fact that the dye is separated from the emulsion by two thicknesses of film means that the spot will be slightly out of focus when the negative is printed. That's also a good thing. And if you don't like the result, you can simply remove the spotted sheet of clear film, apply another sheet, and try again. That's great!