Ice skating, how does it really work? Some textbooks I came across, and a homework assignment I had to do several years ago, suggested that the reason we can skate on ice is the peculiar $p(T)$-curve of the ice-water boundary. The reasoning is that due to the high pressure the skates put on the ice, it will melt at temperaturs below $273 K$ and thus provide a thin film of liquid on which we can skate. It was then mentioned as fun fact that you could ice-skate on a planet with lakes of frozen dioxide because that gas has the $p(T)$-curve the other way round.
My calculations at that time told me that this was, pardon my french, bollocks. The pressure wasn't nearly high enough to lower the melting point to even something like $-0.5$ degrees Celsius.
I suppose it is some other mechanism, probably related to the crystal structure of ice, but I'd really appreciate if someone more knowledgeable could tell something about it.
 A: This question has been hotly contested for ages.
Calderon & Mohazzabi $ ^{[1]} $ give an excellent summation of the various theories proposed through the years to explain why ice is so slippery in their paper "Premelting, Pressure Melting, and Regelation of ice revisited"
They offer both theoretical and experimental evidence that neither pressure melting nor friction melting alone explain the phenomenon and conclude from atomic force microscopy, among other evidence, that there is a pre-melting Quasi-​Liquid surface layer with special properties - This was originally proposed by Faraday and Thompson back in the 1850s - that, in conjuxtion with some pressure melting, make ice skating possible.
Actually they point to other research that shows ice is not the only solid behaving differently on the surface when near its melting point. The main reasons we notice ice is because it is one of the few substances we encounter that is near its melting point when we do encounter it and its abundance.
Ski-ing is also helped along by friction melting once movement starts.The weighted wire cutting through the ice, however, is pressure melting and regelation.
Another paper that summarises previous research well is that by Dash et. al. $ ^{[2]} $
Both papers referenced also give a good set of references for further reading.
References

*

*Calderon, C. and Mohazzabi, P. (2018) "Premelting, Pressure Melting, and Regelation of Ice Revisited." Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, 6, 2181-2191.
https://doi.org/10.4236/jamp.2018.611183
Preview/read online at : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328766489_Premelting_Pressure_Melting_and_Regelation_of_Ice_Revisited


*Drake, J.G., Fu, H. and Wettlaufer, J.S. (1995) "The Premelting of Ice and Its Environmental Consequences." Reports on Progress in Physics,58, 115. es. Reports on Progress in
Physics,58, 115.
https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/58/1/003
A: Yup, this is true that the pressure is too small, but the true explanation is not justified yet. Nevertheless the common sense is that there is a lubricating film of water or at least anomalous ice.
For an overview, see: http://lptms.u-psud.fr/membres/trizac/Ens/L3FIP/Ice.pdf 
A: The assertion that the skate does not exert enough pressure to melt ice is wrong.  Imagine that the skate is lowered vertically until it touches a perfectly flat surface of ice.  The initial contact area (before the blade starts to sink into the ice) would be incalculably small and the initial pressure incalculably large because of curvatures.  A typical freestyle blade’s “rocker” has a radius of 6 feet; its “hollow” of 7/16 to 10/16 inch.  The blade is typically 0.15 inch thick, so its two edges have “bite” angles of 7 to 10 degrees.  The rate at which an edge could melt ice and sink in would be limited by heat conduction.  In a dynamic situation, with the skater gliding along at a good speed, viscous dissipation in the thin layer of lubricating water would generate some of the heat.  If the skater’s trajectory is curved but the rocker’s curvature multiplied by sin(tilt) is poorly matched to the curvature of the trajectory, then there will be additional friction and sound effects as the edge chews up the ice.
A: I remember 
reading in a book (on surface physics) during my grad study on
this topic. 
There was a diagram on friction of a steel "skate" on solid 
argon at and below argon melting temperature. 
The diagram was qualitatively identical to the same experiment 
for ice. Friction dropped to low values when temperature 
aproached melting point. 
Argon melts regularly, for that reason pressure melting is 
not possible. 
I regret that I did not memorize the title and author of that book :=(
Georg 
Another fact against 2pressure melting": how does skiing work? 
The pressure under a ski is very low. 
A: Well, having a solid block of ice. Atatch weights to a string on both ends and hang it over the ice. The string will go trough the ice over a period of time, without actually cutting the entire block. How does this happen? possibly the pressure melting minescule ammounts of ice underneath the string and the water refreezing above the string.
A: It was shown that surface water molecules vibrate more strongly than those in the bulk, having less neighbor molecules to interact with. Apparently, this creates a nanometric film of quasi-liquid water that reduces friction.
A: 
Regelation-Regelation is the phenomenon of melting under pressure and freezing again when the pressure is reduced. Many sources state that regelation can be demonstrated by looping a fine wire around a block of ice, with a heavy weight attached to it.

Ice skaters shoes : 
Whole weight of skater is concentrated at this small portion of area,thus ice under shoes melts quickly [due to Regelation] converting ice to water (notice that due to high pressure ice converts to water without increase  of temperature , generally ice melts at 0℃). Hence due to replacing of some amount of ice with water, friction of surface decrease and skater moves easily.
Why to use term regelation? 
Since due to pressure (or) strain , small amount of ice is coverted to water,whole ice does not break(,melt),making skating possible.
Also: people tried to add on wiki,edit summary
