advice for newbie?

Planning to head to Paradise for a first foray into summer randonee skiing later this week and am interested in advice on a good day trip as well as any tips from the more experienced on making the day more enjoyable. Interested in equipment tips, route /destination suggestions, words of wisdom and the like. Of course, the more skiing the merrier.

Thoughts? Comments? Advice?

Thanks in advance.

Most of us are leaving the avy gear at home these days... pretty rare to see anything sluff any more.  Most folks are packing the ski boots along with the skis until they get to the snow. 

If you're solo (or inexperienced on glaciers) it might be a good idea to avoid the glaciers until you get some more experience with them. 

Androolus' suggestion of yoyoing the snowfield west of the Pebble rolls is a good one.  That's probably what I'd do were I you. 

Course newer folks seem to like to "bag" Muir, so there's that, too.  If I were you and went to to Muir I'd try to seek the smooth stuff near the rocks skiers left on the way down and then cross over to the west at about 8000 and ski the patch androolus mentioned (we call that "pebble chute" although it's more of a line than it is a chute).

If you do that you'll likely need to climb back up to the trail somewhere around pebble creek from the bottom of the "pebble chute". It cliffs out this time of year where pebble creek drops down into the nisqually gl morraine. 
Be careful you don't punch through at the bottom where the creek passes under the snowfield. Down below those cliffs was where I read they found that young doctor that left muir in a whiteout on a snowboard a few years ago and was missing for a year or two.

Have a fun time and let us know how it goes.

So probably crampons and ice axe are not necessary and the snow will be pretty soft, yes?

Again, any and all input welcome.

We left the parking lot at about 7am on Sunday (07/23) and went to Muir with trail running shoes and a ski thong...it was too hot for anything else. Arrived just before 10am and it was warm enough to hang out for an hour, headed down at 11. The snow might have been a little better (softer) if we had waited but we wanted to get back for a swim.

Have fun...

Although right now it's a slog, one of the few other places to get some decent skiing in is beyond Coleman Pinnacle along Ptarmigan Ridge (past Artist Point, at the end of 542 - Mtn. Baker Hwy). I'd say some of the north facing stuff along there may still be an option. If the crevasse hazard isn't too bad (and, assuming you don't want to deal with them), the Sholes Glacier (which is beyond Coleman Pinnacle) definitely holds snow, as well as the Rainbow Glacier (just to the south & west of it).

The Flett Glacier, although steep, is another option on the N. side of Rainier. I'm sure you'll find plenty of links to other summer outings simply by surfing the July/August months on this website.