Our expedition in March 2016 took us on the high elevation slopes of Volcán Llullaillaco, a dormant stratovolcano at the border of Chile and Argentina. It is the second highest active volcano in the world, and it lies next to the Atacama Desert. This microbiological expedition aimed at sampling several extreme habitats within the slopes of this mountain, including dry tephra soils, lake water and ice penitentes, as well as setting fertilization plots to understand how extremophilic communities respond when resource limitations are alleviated. The original interest in this mountain on a microbiological perspective arose from the discovery of the best naturally preserved assemblage of mummies found anywhere in the world. These mummies showed almost no signs of decay after being buried without preserving chemicals for 500 years. The lack of natural decay of these mummies may indicate an environment that is too cold and dry for the proliferation of decaying microbes and the study of microbial communities dwelling in this barren landscape can shed light on the cold-dry limits of life on Earth.