Mt Hood Palmer Glacier - this weekend?

I have a friend coming into town who is new to splitboarding, and was thinking about taking him above Timberline Lodge to get a feel for the gear, conditions permitting. My biggest concern beyond visibility is the avalanche danger. I've only hiked up there a few times, seems like a relatively slide-safe area as long as you stay within the palmer field area, thoughts?

This sounds reasonable to me and mostly depends on your travel and avalanche skills. Consider the following if you want a more in-depth answer.

There are three types of terrain:

1. Terrain where avalanche risk is clearly low.
2. Terrain where avalanche risk is unclear or unknown.
3. Terrain where avalanche risk is clearly high.

You're always at a higher risk for errors and accidents when you travel through terrain for which the risk is unclear ( i.e. middle ground terrain ) because you might make decisions without a complete understanding of the risks and consequences. You've stated that the terrain "seems like a relatively slide-safe area". Are you unclear about whether or not your plan includes travel through avalanche terrain or avalanche runout zones? Go find clarity about this before you travel or be prepared to reduce your expectations and make very conservative decisions.

I can't provide a more specific answer because I won't be there this weekend and have no ideas about the specific conditions you're going to encounter. Therefore it would be ridiculous and irresponsible for me to make any statements about terrain and instability for the Mt. Hood area. You sound a bit unsure and perhaps a bit uncomfortable. Are you planning to take this trip because your friend really wants to go? Friends of mine really wanted to go touring at Paradise on December 24th. We arrived and found highly unstable snow. Therefore we spent a very long day skiing up very gentle slopes and descending the same way. No one was rewarded with an exciting ski descent afterwards but we all made it back safe.

Hope this helps.

Generally speaking you could tour up around the Magic Mile area or climbers trail below the Palmer snowfield where it is fairly flat up to the Silcox hut area. The terrain there is pretty mellow. I don't know if the Mile lift would be open this weekend or not, but watch out for snowcat groomers. While the Palmer might be safe, given the high avalanche warnings for this weekend, I'd probably just stay on the Mile if all you care about is getting a feel for the gear.

Here is an update on conditions from yestereday. I skinned up from the Timberline side lot up to the Silcox hut. It was ice practically all the way up. I would think if it snows as is forecast, this would set some of the high risk areas up for significant slide hazards. I stayed on the areas that looked safest/not steep, but I could clearly see lots of cornice areas around the snowcat trail that runs down a gully a little east of the mile. You could stay on the Magic Mile area and probably be fine, but I would still be cautious. My decent was slow because of the ice. The surface was so windblown, there was minimal powder and they have not conditioned the slopes up by the Silcox and above at least as of yesterday. Make sure you bring skins, you will definitely need them.
Cheers.
-Marc

There are completely avalanche-safe options nearby, namely the Alpine Trail and Glade Trail which lead from Government Camp through the woods up to Timberline Lodge.  Perfect for newbies, also much better and safer in stormy or whiteout conditions than above-treeline on Palmer. 

See Backcountry Ski! Oregon by Christopher Van Tilburg, p.8-11. Some pages (including those) are readable online for free at books.google.com/books?isbn=1570612323 .

I checked out the same book, planning for our first trip of the season, first trip at Mt. Hood for me since waaay back in the nineties.

We're thinking about Tom Dick and Harry, if for no other reason than just to check it out. We also have split boards, hope your friend likes it.

The trails mentioned by Amar sound good too.

Looking at NWAC, I think it would be very prudent to have good situational awareness on thursday and friday.