hi Sam, what about something like this:

"/path/to/../from/./your/code/to/mine"
"/" split harvest
V{ } clone tuck dup '[
dup "." = [ drop ] [
dup ".." = [ drop _ pop* ] [ _ push ] if  ] if
] each 

=> V{ "path" "from" "your" "code" "to" "mine" }

(ofcourse later:   "/" join "/" prepend  )

I tried to make it into a cond, but it didn't work for some reason.
another way is to filter out '.' later.
( [ CHAR: . = not ] filter )