hack (one's) way through (something)

To proceed through something, typically some sort of overgrown vegetation, by cutting it out of one's way. Good luck hacking your way through the dense growth on that path. Why am I so itchy? Please tell me I didn't just hack my way through some poisonous plant. I need a sharper blade to hack through this dense brush.

Fig. to cut one's way through something. We had to hack our way through the jungle. The surveyors hacked a pathway through the undergrowth.