Excellent choice! I just bought one of those for my daughter, with some 18650's (3400mAh) and charger. She just took a park ranger job that includes some light law enforcement duties (writing parking tickets and stuff like that). I wanted her to have a good flashlight with the ability to remember strobe mode, for instant access. She wanted something light weight and small for belt carry, and after research, the P12 is what I chose.
After a week on that job, she realized that she didn't like law enforcement - too many drunks, mean, aggressive people, folks were NOT happy to see her, etc. And since she was more of an auxiliary-type ranger she was not armed, making some encounters a little scary, having to radio for armed backup and hoping they'd get there in time. Luckily they were able to transfer her to a more standard "park ranger" type position, where she's explaining the flora and fauna and leading people on tours in those areas (that was what they initially told her the job would be, before dropping the law enforcement bomb on her). So it all worked out in the end.
She now wants to trade that P12 with me for my smaller inside pocket light - an Olight T15 with 14500's. I don't use that Olight much, not for years now, so it's a good trade for me (well, considering I paid for both lights, it's not much of a "trade"!)
Anyway, back to the conversation at hand - I think the P12 would make an excellent distress light for hiking. The flashing modes would have quite a bit of reach after dark, and the light would be very useful for other activities as well. You can use the lower power modes and it lasts a very long time. The Fenix PD35 is a similar light (but lacks the remember-strobe capability that I was initially after - most people probably don't want/need that however).